The National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) recently concluded that employers may not discipline or terminate an employee for engaging in some forms of communication on social media sites, like Facebook and Twitter. The reasoning behind this ruling is that if the employee is engaged in “protected concerted activity” whereby they are discussing terms and conditions of employment with fellow co-workers, then the employee is well within their rights under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act. However, the NLRB did distinguish between what it feels is an open discussion amongst co-workers about working conditions, and an individual tirade. Case in point, it was determined that a retail store could discipline an employee after finding out they had used a denigrating term to describe a “tyrannical” assistant manager. The NLRB concluded that the post was more about an individual gripe than a concerted action.
