Well this is interesting. Social media and what we write on it is a big topic these days, as employers are getting more and more savvy and screening their employees and potential employees via Facebook and Twitter at times. There have been multiple stories of people being fired from what they wrote on their page talking smack about their companies and it had people wondering if there’s anywhere we can speak our own mind without getting in trouble for it?! In an interesting change of events, a company that fired some employees over the same thing is now being found WRONG for doing so because the state ruled it was a “protected concerted activity.” Find out some details after the jump but still, watch what you write!!
(ATL) – Even after all the stories about people getting fired because of incriminating Facebook posts or police tracking illegal activity via Twitter, a few employees in Buffalo, NY were brave enough to talk smack about their company using social media. Predictably, they were discovered and fired by their company. But in a rare move by the National Labor Relations Board, the nonprofit organization was deemed wrong to have fired them for Facebook postings that criticized working conditions, and disclosed that it has more than two dozen cases involving worker complaints aired on the social media site, The Wall Street Journal reports.
“The NLRB complaint against Hispanics United of Buffalo reaffirms the agency’s position in an earlier case that labor law allows employees to discuss the terms and conditions of their employment with co-workers and others – including postings on social-media sites,†the Journal reports.
An employee of Hispanics United posted a co-worker’s allegation that employees didn’t help the nonprofit’s clients enough, and the post drew responses from other employees who defended their work and blamed conditions such as work loads and staffing issues, the Journal said. The NLRB found that the employee Facebook discussion was “protected concerted activity†under the National Labor Relations Act.
Be careful what you post on Facebook; it may get you fired or it may help change company policy.
