*Special thanks to Porter Wright summer law clerk, Grace Brown, for her assistance with this post.

It’s the summer of 2020, and someone from your company posts to her public Facebook page saying, “If Black people truly wanted equality, then they wouldn’t be isolating themselves into a separate group with Black Lives Matter. All lives matter!”

Your social media marketing team discovers the employee’s post after it was shared by someone who accuses that employee, and your company, of being racist.

What do you do?
Continue Reading How employers can respond to social justice and free speech issues on social media

With increasing frequency, employers are raising the question about what can (or can’t) be done with employees who speak about polarizing issues, whether at work or in a way that affects the work environment. This question is arising often because of our current social and political climate. The legal and practical implications are complex.
Continue Reading Employees and free speech

The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit recently issued an opinion that reversed a decision by the National Labor Relations Board about whether a comment by a management representative was a threat to workers or a mere joke. The NLRB decision sheds interesting light on how remarks, such as this specific employer’s tweet, meant in jest can backfire. Fortunately for this employer, on appeal the Third Circuit “got the joke.”
Continue Reading Third Circuit decides employer’s tweet was comedic, not coercive

On Oct. 19, 2021, the Department of Justice, Immigrant and Employee Rights Section (IER)  announced a settlement agreement with Facebook to resolve issues regarding Facebook’s practices to recruit for PERM applications. The settlement agreement requires Facebook to pay a significant fine, provide a fund for the settlement of individual claims and modify recruiting practices for PERM cases.
Continue Reading Lessons from the IER settlement with Facebook

bradswifeThough you may find it hard to believe, there are some things that southern comfort food and a glass of sweet tea just can’t smooth over. Restaurant chain, Cracker Barrel, is finding this out the hard way this week as it draws the ire of the public after Bradley Reid Byrd, the husband of a former Cracker Barrel employee posted one simple question on Cracker Barrel’s Facebook page on Feb. 27, 2017: “Why did you fire my wife?”

The post went largely unnoticed until March 22, 2017 when comedian Amiri King posted the screen grab (above) to his Facebook page and the ordeal went viral.Continue Reading #Justiceforbradswife: Responding to viral social media

Back in September of last year, we reported on an NLRB decision finding that a Connecticut sports bar, Triple Play Sports Bar & Grille, had unlawfully terminated two employees – one of whom commented on a former employee’s criticism of the employer’s handling of the tax withholding on employee paychecks and the other who clicked “Like” in response to that comment. This past week, the Second Circuit, on Triple Play’s petition for review, upheld the Board’s decision, in a case captioned Three D, LLC, d/b/a Triple Play Sports Bar & Grille v. NLRB.

In its decision, the Second Circuit held that the employees’ respective comment and “Like” were protected concerted activity under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act because they both related to ongoing employee concerns over the employer’s workplace tax withholding and their resulting tax liabilities. The court also concluded that the employees’ Facebook communications were not so disloyal or defamatory as to lose the protection of the Act. Specifically, the court found that the employees did not disparage the employer’s products or services and their communications were not “maliciously untrue.”

The court was not swayed by any profanity contained in the one employee’s comment because it was not made in the presence of or directed at customers and did not reflect the employer’s brand. According to the court, accepting Triple Play’s argument that the Facebook discussion took place “in the presence of customers” could lead to the undesirable result of chilling virtually all employee speech online. “Almost all Facebook posts by employees have at least some potential to be viewed by customers.” As a result, the court upheld the Board’s order requiring the employer to offer reinstatement and full back pay to the terminated employees.Continue Reading Second Circuit upholds NLRB finding that Triple Play Sports Grille unlawfully terminated employees for Facebook postings

We have reported on a federal court’s rulings related to plaintiff’s efforts in Mark v. Gawker Media LLC (S.D.N.Y.) to use social media to notify potential class action members here and here. On April 10 the court held that the class plaintiffs, former interns for the website Gawker, can use social media to notify