NLRB Issues Memo on Social Media Cases

Realizing the confusion in the area of employee use of social media, today, the acting General Counsel of the NLRB issued a memorandum discussing the current state of the law. The introduction provides the reasoning for the memo:

This report presents recent case developments arising in the context of today’s social media. Social media include various online technology tools that enable people to communicate easily via the internet to share information and resources. These tools can encompass text, audio, video, images, podcasts, and other multimedia communications. Recent developments in the Office of the General Counsel have presented emerging issues concerning the protected and/or concerted nature of employees’ Facebook and Twitter postings, the coercive impact of a union’s Facebook and YouTube postings, and the lawfulness of employers’ social media policies and rules. This report discusses these cases, as well as a recent case involving an employer’s policy restricting employee contacts with the media. All of these cases were decided upon a request for advice from a Regional Director.

Businesses have been struggling with developing policies and approaches to the issues presented by social media in the workplace. To those businesses, this report is required reading. It provides one-stop shopping for the current state of the law in this area. The complete report can be found at: https://www.nlrb.gov/news/acting-general-counsel-releases-report-social-media-cases.