Thursday, October 22, 2015

Major Facebook Decision Is In: Boss Can’t Fire You for “Asshole” Comment


Recently, this blog reported on a key ruling by the NLRB that ruled in favor of a waitress who called her boss an “asshole” on Facebook. The cook liked the post. Both employees were fired. A federal appeals panel voted 3-0 to uphold the NLRB. Their core reasoning: “Although customers happened to see the Facebook discussion at issue in this case, the discussion was not directed toward customers and did not reflect the employer’s brand. The Board’s decision that the Facebook activity at issue here did not lose the protection of the Act simply because it contained obscenities viewed by customers accords with the reality of modernday social media use.” So where is the line? An employee can be fired for a social media post that disparages the employer’s product: “an employer has a legitimate interest in preventing the disparagement of its products or services and, relatedly, in protecting its reputation . . . from defamation.” Read the case is here.

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