This issue of Take 5 encapsulates the incredible breadth of societal changes and challenges facing the entire retail workplace. The topics addressed below reflect a microcosm of the many issues currently facing our overall society, covering growing political activism in the workplace, increasing expectations to accommodate religious beliefs, otherwise outrageous employee speech that may very well enjoy protection under the law, and the ever-increasing requirements for criminal background checks enacted piecemeal by states and cities. These extremely topical subjects ...
With the ever-increasing amount of information available on social media, employers should remember to exercise caution when utilizing social media as a part of their Human Resources/ Recruitment related activities. As we have discussed in a prior blog post, “Should Employers and Facebook Be Friends?” we live in a digital-age, and how people choose to define themselves is often readily showcased on social networking sites. Whether – and how – employers choose to interact with the online presence of their workforce will continue to develop as the relevant legal standards ...
Recent discrimination lawsuits filed by former employees against Facebook and Twitter, serve as a reminder of the importance of having robust sexual harassment and equal employment opportunity policies in place. In Chia Hong v. Facebook, Inc., et al., which was filed on March 16, 2015 in the Superior Court of California in and for San Mateo County, former Facebook employee Chia Hong, who is Taiwanese, alleges that during her employment at Facebook she was discriminated against and harassed on the basis of her gender, race and nationality in violation of the California Fair ...
My colleague Steven M. Swirsky published “Teamsters and Technology II – Labor’s “Silicon Valley Rising” Campaign” which is a follow-up to “Teamsters and Technology: Developing Labor Issues for Technology Industry Employers.” Both blog posts are published on Epstein Becker Green’s Management Memo and we think the topic is timely and of particular interest to Technology Employment Law subscribers:
Following is an excerpt:
Last week we reported on the fact that Teamsters Local 853 and Loop Transportation had completed negotiations for a first collective ...
Our colleagues Steven M. Swirsky and Daniel J. Green at Epstein Becker Green published an article on Management Memo that will be of interest to our Technology Employment Law subscribers: “Teamsters and Technology: Developing Labor Issues for Technology Industry Employers.”
Following is an excerpt:
Employers in the Technology Media and Telecommunications (“TMT”) industries have generally not thought that union organizing was an issue that affected their businesses and workforces. Recent developments suggest that this is no longer the case.
These industries have ...
Virginia has now joined the chorus of jurisdictions that ban social media snooping by employers. As we previously reported here and here, in a growing trend a number of states prohibit employers from requiring prospective or current employees to provide access to their social media accounts during the hiring process. On March 7, 2015, the Virginia legislature passed H. 2081, a law prohibiting employers from asking or requiring employees or applicants (1) to disclose the username and password to their social media accounts, and (2) to add an employer to the list of contacts ...
Like it or not, we live in a digital-age, and how people choose to define themselves is often readily showcased on social networking sites such as Facebook. Given the candid manner many individuals express themselves on their social networking profiles, it's only natural that employers have started to pay attention. Why wouldn't they? Employers want to pick the right person for the job and that their employees do not disparage the company or act in a manner that threatens workplace security. But when news spread that a few employers were demanding access to ...
By: Kara M. Maciel and Matthew Sorensen
Social media has become an increasingly important tool for businesses to market their products and services. As the use of social media in business continues to grow, companies will face new challenges with respect to the protection of their confidential information and business goodwill, as several recent federal district court decisions demonstrate.
Christou v. Beatport, LLC (D. Colo. 2012), Ardis Health, LLC v. Nankivell (S.D. N.Y. 2011), and PhoneDog v. Kravitz (N.D. Cal. 2011) each involved former employees who took the login ...
By: Ana S. Salper
No governmental body has been more active in addressing social media’s impact on the workplace than the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”). For both unionized and non-unionized employers, the Board has been aggressively scrutinizing the contours of employer discipline of employees for their activities on social media sites, and has regulated and constricted the scope and breadth of employer social media policies. Following his first report in August 2011, National Labor Relations Board Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon has now released a ...
On September 28, 2011, a National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) administrative law judge (ALJ) found that Knauz BMW lawfully terminated the employment of Robert Becker, a salesperson, after he posted pictures and comments on his Facebook page about two different workplace incidents -- an automobile accident and a dealership sales event. The judge also found that several Employee Handbook policies, unrelated to social media postings, contained overly broad language. Karl Knauz Motors, Inc. d/b/a Knauz BMW and Robert Becker, Case No. 13-CA-46452 (Sept. 28 ...
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 ...
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