Skip to main content

What I've Been Reading This Week: Social Media Edition


It was a busy week for me so I did not have as much time as I would have liked to read through my normal amount of articles and cases.  With that being said, I did find a few articles dealing with social media in the workplace that I wanted to highlight.

As always, below are a few articles that caught my eye this week.



This is a rather well written piece by Michael Haberman that deals with who (and how) an employer can fire for social media activity.  The article breaks down who is covered by the protections of the National Labor Relations Act ("NLRA") and what kind of discipline an employer can levy.  I would suggest employers give this one a read through...there are several important things to keep in mind when an employer wants to fire an employee for their social media activity and this article does a good job addressing that.



Hunter Johnson has a few thoughts on steps employers should take to avoid liability when they search an employee's device.  The best part of the article and one that I would steer readers towards is the section in which Johnson gives advice on what an employer can do to avoid being accused of illegally looking at employee's private information.


On the Job & Wanting to Post Something on Social Media? Think it Through First

The Huffington Post has a short article on a school bus driver in Ohio who took a selfie of what appeared to be her drinking a bottle of beer on the bus, posted it on Facebook, and subsequently got fired.  An investigation later revealed the driver was off duty, no children were on the bus, and the bottle of beer was not actually open.  It goes without saying that whatever an employee posts on social media (especially while on the job), should be done very carefully and with an eye towards what people may interpret the post as meaning.  Even though the driver in this case was not actually drinking and was not on duty, this was an avoidable situation that the employee should have thought twice about before posting a picture on social media. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NLRB: Discussion Among Employees About Tip Pooling is Protected Concerted Activity

  This Advice Memorandum from the National Labor Relations Board’s Associate General Counsel, Jayme Sophir, addressed whether employees which discussed and complained about tip pooling at work constituted protected concerted activity. In relevant part, an employer in New York operated a chain of steakhouses.  While tip pooling was in place at these steakhouses, some of the employees objected to it on the grounds that it was not transparent and improperly divided tips among the workers.  Employees were told not to complain or talk to each other about the tip pool and were told that doing so would endanger their jobs.  Despite the employer later attempting to provide some clarity as to how the tips were being divided, rancor still existed among some employees.  At one point, the employees were told by a general manager that some employees that had been talking about the tip pool were “cleared out” and the employer would continue to do so. In the Advice Memorandum, it was noted that emplo
Post a Comment
Read more

Happening Tomorrow: Connecticut’s Minimum Wage Increases

For those employers and employees alike in Connecticut, mark your calendars as tomorrow, the minimum wage rate increases in the state from $13/hour to $14/hour. This wage hike comes after Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont had signed Public Act 19-4 into law in 2019 which progressively raised the state’s hourly minimum wage rate every year for five years.  In fact, next year, the hourly wage rate will top out at $15/hour.  Beginning in January of 2024, the hourly wage rate will be indexed to the employment cost index. For additional information:   https://portal.ct.gov/Office-of-the-Governor/News/Press-Releases/2022/06-2022/Governor-Lamont-Reminds-Residents-That-Minimum-Wage-Is-Scheduled-To-Increase-on-Friday
Post a Comment
Read more

What I’ve Been Reading This Week

A few years ago, I remember when the “Fight for $15” movement was taking off around the country.  Lo and behold, it appears that a $15/hour minimum wage is not the stopping point, which should be no surprise.  As the below article notes, New York is aggressively moving to ramp up hourly wage rates even higher.  While all the  below articles are worth a read, I called particular attention to that one. As always, below are a couple article that caught my eye this week. Disney World Workers Reject Latest Contract Offer Late last week, it was announced that workers at Disney World had rejected the most recent contract offer from the company, calling on their employer to do better.  As Brooks Barnes at The New York Times writes, the unions that represent about 32,000 workers at Disney World reported their members resoundingly rejected the 5 year contract offer which would have seen workers receive a 10% raise and retroactive increased back pay.  While Disney’s offer would have increased pa
Post a Comment
Read more