In a groundbreaking case, the board stepped in to argue that a worker's criticisms of bosses on a social networking site are a protected activity and that employers would be violating US law by punishing workers.
The labour relations board announced that it has filed a complaint against American Medical Response of Connecticut, which had sacked an emergency medical technician, accusing her of breaching a company policy that bars employees from depicting the company "in any way" on social media sites.
The case involves Dawnmarie Souza, who had to prepare a response to a complaint about her work.
Ms Souza, the board said, was unhappy that her supervisor would not let a representative of her union the Teamsters help her.
She then criticised her supervisor on Facebook in her own time and on her own computer.
The board's acting general counsel Lafe Solomon said: "This is a fairly straightforward case under the National Labour Relations Act (NLRA).
"Whether it takes place on Facebook or at the water cooler, it was employees talking jointly about working conditions, in this case about their supervisor, and they have a right to do that."
The NLRA gives workers a federally protected right to join a union and it prohibits employers from punishing workers - whether union or non-union - for discussing working conditions or unionisation.
The labour board said the company's Facebook rule was "overly broad" and improperly limited employees' rights to discuss working conditions among themselves.
The board also said another company policy barred employees from making disparaging or discriminatory comments when discussing the company or superiors and co-workers.
The decision sent US employment lawyers into a spin.
One company representing hundreds of clients emailed out a "lawflash" saying: "All private-sector employers should take note" regardless of whether their workers are unionised.
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/index.php/news/content/view/full/97527
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