Does your company have a social media policy that restricts employees from posting comments about your company on their personal Facebook page or tweeting such comments on Twitter or otherwise? If so, use caution.
The National Labor Relations Board is taking a closer look at such policies. If your policy interferes with, restrains or coerces employees in the exercise of their rights to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively, or to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or mutual aid or protection, then your policy could violation the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
For example, counsel for the NLRB has recently found that a policy that prohibited employees from posting non-public, confidential or proprietary company information on the internet was overbroad and could be interpreted to prohibit communications among employees related to working conditions, which is a protected activity under the NLRA.
The NLRB recently published a report on this topic which you can read by clicking on “Operations Management Memo” in the attached link. As the report indicates, the more concise and clear your policy can be in relation to prohibited activities, including examples of what is and is not allowed, the better.
If you have questions about developing a social media policy for your business, please contact our Business Law Group partner, David A. Closson at [email protected].