What employees can say online, but probably shouldn't

Interesting union issue in the paper:

The National Labor Relations Board has been getting social media cases.

The resulting actions against employers and employees should be a warning to employers trying to restrict social media postings by employees and to workers who use the medium to air their grievances.

The board ruled that a company could not fire employees using Facebook to share criticism of their working conditions.

The issue started when an employee posted on her Facebook page comments that a co-worker had made about other employees, saying they were not doing enough. Some of the postings that followed contained profanity, but they mostly criticized working conditions, including workload and staffing issues. Upon seeing the postings, the co-worker who had made the criticism said she considered the Facebook conversation to be "cyber-bullying" and "harassing behavior."

The employee who posted the comments and workers who responded were fired. The company claimed the Facebook conversation constituted harassment of the employee whose criticisms were noted in the original post, the NLRB said.
But a judge ruled that the employees' Facebook discussion was protected under the National Labor Relations Act because it involved a conversation among co-workers about their terms and conditions of employment, including job performance and staffing levels. The judge ordered the company to reinstate the employees and give them back pay.

Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act protects the "concerted activities" of workers who engage in discussions about the terms and conditions of their employment. The rule stems from union organizing, but now it's increasingly being applied to protect workers talking via social media.

Workers' criticisms of their employers on social networking sites are generally protected and employers may be violating the law by punishing workers for such statements.

"A knee-jerk reaction by an employer to a comment an employee makes in social media could create liability for the employer," he said.

Employees shouldn't think they can post just anything about their job situation. Divulging confidential information could lead to termination.

"If I go online and say, 'My boss is making my working conditions unbearable,' that is probably protected."

The labor board's general counsel's office released a report detailing the outcome of cases involving social media use. In cases involving employee use of Facebook, the board found the workers were engaged in "protected concerted activity" because they were discussing terms and conditions of employment with fellow employees.
The board found that in some cases, provisions of employers' social media policies were unlawfully broad.

Contact Michelle Singletary c/o The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. N.W., Washington, DC 20071, or email [email:mkcima2l]singletarym@washpost.com[/email:mkcima2l].

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article...aper?p=1&tc=pg

Exactly, so now you know who to fire.

You just have to find another violation, not connected to the internet, to fire them for.