An employee was recently fired from the American Medical Response of Connecticut Inc. Ambulance Service after posting negative comments about her boss on the popular social network, Facebook. The company and the NRLB, National Labor Relations Board settled on an agreement to update NRLB regulations to avoid restricting workers’ rights. How much freedom of speech does an employee have? To what degree can we mix work life and personal life on social network websites. The NRLB argued that the National Labor Relations Act protects the employee’s freedom of speech and it was illegal for the company to fire her. Employees are free to discuss their employment with others and co-workers. The Ambulance Service company had vague and ambiguous regulations regarding commenting on social media websites or blogging between employees in their employee handbook. The company claimed the employee was fired as a result of her behavior and negative personal attacks unprotected by the NRLA. The company is revising it’s regulations and will not reprimand or fire employees who converse about work, issues, and salary outside the workplace.
Many and most people, employees, and companies are utilizing various social media websites to reach audiences, keep in touch with others, and keep people up to date with current company events. Activities and posts your company or employees make can be viewed so it is important to make sure your employees know what can and cannot be open for anyone to see.
At Metropolitan Risk Advisory, we utilize blogging and facebook to provide you with relevant and important information; New York General Liability, New Jersey Liability, New York Worker’s Compensation, New Jersey Worker’s Compensation and other topics that can help your New York or New Jersey business.
