Social Media

Number 50: What Happens When a Boss “Likes” An Employee a Little Too Much? As we conclude this 50 For 50 series, we look to the future of employment law.  As we see it, the biggest change in the workplace has been the emergence of social media.  According to recent surveys, nearly three-quarters of American…

Brendan Eich resigned his post as CEO of Mozilla, a California-based company, in early April after just 14 days on the job.  The reason for his sudden departure and short tenure?  It became public that in 2008, Eich contributed $1,000 in support of the Proposition 8 campaign, the California voter referendum that sought to ban…

Eighteen months ago, we reported on a slate of decisions from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) which struck down social media, confidentiality and other similar policies from non-union employee handbooks.  In a surprising turn, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently enforced one of those decisions in Flex Frac Logistics LLC v. NLRB.  

A U.S. District Court Judge in New Jersey has just found that private Facebook postings by an employee about her employer are subject to the Stored Communications Act, 18 U.S.C. §§2701-11 (SCA).  The ruling raises significant potential hurdles for employers who act on private information posted by their employees on social media sites.

Would you believe that 1.1 billion people use Facebook and one-third of Americans use social media for at least an hour a work.  Considering how prevalent social media is, you are behind the curve if you do not already have a social media policy.  But what should it say? HK Partner Dan Handman answered that…

For the first time since January 2012, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) unquestionably has a quorum to issue rulings.  This comes on the heels of the U.S. Senate’s votes yesterday to confirm a 5 members of the Board, three of whom are labor-friendly and two of whom have a management background.  They are: Mark Gaston…

According to the National Labor Relations Board, employers are free to have policies limiting e-mail usage for business purposes only.  They are just not free to enforce it. At a Weyerhauser plant in Washington state, e-mail use is limited for all employees to “business purposes only,” with limited exceptions with managerial consent.  The National Labor Relations…

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, the NLRB issued two new decisions in social media cases, one ordering the reinstatement of a tour bus driver who complained about his employer on a facebook page and the other striking down a hospital’s social media policy.  This continues the Board’s…

As we have blogged before (see our Social Media tab for more posts), the NLRB continues its storm of decisions on social media cases.   The NLRB recently awarded  reinstatement and back pay to several terminated employees who had posted derogatory statements about their supervisor on Facebook. The employer in the case, Design Technology Group, LLC…

Earlier this month, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued a report that provides guidance to public companies that want to use social media to disclose important information about their business activities. The report grew out of an investigation of Netflix’s CEO, who used his own Facebook page to announce information about Netflix that had not been…