Hot Off The Press - Today's New NLRB Social Media Guidance

http://ow.ly/bgHFW

An article by Michael Schmidt posted on the Social Media Law Employment Blog of the law firm Cozen O'Connor.

This article looks at the just released 3rd memorandum providing guidance for social media regulation in the workplace that was issued by the National Labor Relations Board.

The article states, "The first guidance memorandum on August 18, 2011 was focused primarily on adverse employment decisions based on employee social media activity, with a smaller discussion about the scope of social media policies. The second memorandum on January 24, 2012 also addressed adverse employment action, but contained a more detailed analysis of the do’s and don’ts of workplace policies.

Today’s third memorandum is devoted exclusively to the NLRB’s updated thoughts on seven employer social media policies on which the agency has recently issued administrative rulings".  Links to the other two referenced memorandum are provided in the article.

There are 7 cases addressed in the memorandum  that show examples to illustrate the limits of social media regulation.  In 6 of the cases some form of the policy was upheld as lawful, in the 7th case the entire policy was deemed invalid.

The article by Mr. Schmidt provides bullet points that help illustrate what policies are deemed impermissibly overbroad policy provisions according to the NLRB and what is deemed permissible as well.