HR: NLRB releases additional guidance on social media

Acting General Counsel releases report on employer social media policies

May 30, 2012
Contact:
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NLRB Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon today issued a third report on social media cases brought to the agency, this time focusing exclusively on policies governing the use of social media by employees.

The Operations Management Memo details seven cases involving such policies. In six cases, the General Counsel’s office found some provisions of the employer’s social media policy to be lawful. In the seventh case, the entire policy was found to be lawful.

Provisions are found to be unlawful when they interfere with the rights of employees under the National Labor Relations Act, such as the right to discuss wages and working conditions with co-workers.

“I hope that this report, with its specific examples of various employer policies and rules, will provide additional guidance in this area,” Mr. Solomon said in releasing the memo. Two previous memos on social media cases, which involved discharges based on Facebook posts, issued in January 2012 and in August 2011.

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Social Networking and Faculty Discipline: A Pennsylvania Case Points Toward Confrontational Times, Requiring Collective Bargaining Attention

James Ottavio Castagnera, Rider University
John Lanza IV, Rider University

Abstract

While social-networking sites like Facebook are still relatively new to the working world, employers monitoring their employee’s activities and conduct outside the workplace is not. The most alluring aspects of social-networking sites is the ease in which an account can be created and maintained, the personalization options they present to the user, and a uniquely 21st century way of keeping in contact with friends and family. Social-networking sites are truly a wonder of the modern age, where by typing out a few sentences, uploading some photographs, videos and making some friend requests, one can present his or her entire life -up to the second- online for people to see. But who exactly can see this information, and of what exactly do their social-networking activities and communications consist?

Recommended Citation

Castagnera, James Ottavio and Lanza IV, John (2010) "Social Networking and Faculty Discipline: A Pennsylvania Case Points Toward Confrontational Times, Requiring Collective Bargaining Attention," Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy: Vol. 2, Article 5.
Available at: http://thekeep.eiu.edu/jcba/vol2/iss1/5