by Steven M. Swirsky and Michael F. McGahan
On Thursday, August 18, 2011, the Acting General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB" or "Board") issued a report on the outcome of 14 cases involving employees' use of social media or social media policies in general. This report follows a more expansive "Survey of Social Media Issues Before the NLRB" issued by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on August 5, 2011, which addresses 129 cases involving social media reviewed by the NLRB at some level. Further, after these reports were published, an NLRB administrative law judge ("ALJ") issued the first decision of its kind – finding that terminating employees for using social media to express concerns about the workplace violates the National Labor Relations Act ("NLRA" or "Act").
Read together, those two reports and that ALJ decision begin to give employers some guidance on reacting to the use of social media by their employees, and on developing social media policies. Most of the cases covered in the reports are at early stages of investigation or litigation, or were settled. Thus, the NLRB's position may evolve further as cases are decided on fully developed records.
Generally, the cases reported on fall into two categories: (1) claims that employees have been retaliated against in violation of the NLRA as a result of statements made about their employers or working conditions on or in any of the wide variety of social media channels available, such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogs, podcasts, and the like; and (2) claims that an employer's social media policy violates the NLRA because its prohibitions may "chill" employees in the exercise their rights under the Act.