Even if It Enrages Your Boss, Social Net Speech Is Protected
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE January 21, 2013
As Facebook and Twitter become as central to workplace conversation as the company cafeteria, federal regulators are ordering employers to scale back policies that limit what workers can say online.
Employers often seek to discourage comments that paint them in a negative light. Don't discuss company matters publicly, a typical social media policy will say, and don't disparage managers, co-workers or the company itself. Violations can be a firing offense.
But in a series of recent rulings and advisories, labor regulators have declared many such blanket restrictions illegal. The National Labor Relations Board says workers have a right to discuss work conditions freely and without fear of retribution, whether the discussion takes place at the office or on Facebook.
In addition to ordering the reinstatement of various workers fired for their posts on social networks, the agency has pushed companies nationwide, including giants like General Motors, Target and Costco, to rewrite their social media rules.
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This is a two-edged sword. While employees may have a right to complain, I don't think they have a right to do it on company time. That means that companies which used to allow FaceTwiTube posts over the corporate network will now be more likely to block the traffic, and I'm not sure that's a "net gain" for the labor movement.
Bill Horne Moderator