Title: Law on Social Media Policies at Work | Justia
Headings: Social Media Policies
Social Media Policies
Employees Acting Together to Address Work Conditions on Social Media
On Your Own Time: Social Media

Content: For example, a coworker’s Facebook postings have been used to substantiate an employee’s claim of workplace racial harassment. Employees Acting Together to Address Work Conditions on Social Media
The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) is a federal law that was enacted in 1935 to protect the rights of employees and employers and to encourage collective bargaining. Enforced by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the law protects the rights of employees to act together to address work conditions, whether or not they are part of a union. The protection covers work-related conversations conducted on social media. For example, if you are part of a group of five employees that participates in Facebook postings about a coworker who plans to complain to management about the group members’ work performance, you are likely to be found to be engaging in protected concerted activity under NLRA. An employer’s social media policies should not be so broad that they prohibit the discussion of wages or working conditions among employees. If posts or comments on posts are not work-related, they are not likely to be considered “protected activity” under NLRA. Moreover, an employee’s gripes on social media about an employer or coworker are not protected activity unless they are made in relation to group activity among employees. If you post a malicious rumor to Facebook about a supervisor having a sexually transmitted disease and a number of your Facebook friends are coworkers, this is not likely to be found protected concerted activity. It also may open you up to civil liability in a defamation or privacy suit.