Question

Your company is unionized. How do recent NLRB rulings impact the type of employee conduct that can be prohibited in a company Social Media Policy?

Answer 1

An unionized company is an organization of employees, called as labour or trade unions. These unions act as an intermediary between the employees and the management of the company whenever required.

Mostly , there are employee issues regarding their wages, bonuses and compensations. In recent times, as the exposure of the social media increased, these unions went on various digital platforms to raise their voices in protest.

The organization called National Labour Relations Board (NLRB), came into force to protect the rights of the labour unions and provided them freedom to raise their voices against the companies.

According, to the NLRB laws if any employer tries to control or limit its employees of what they post on their social media platforms about the company, then they are violating the employees rights and could face legal actions for this. Thus it asked the companies to refer the NLRB labour protection guidelines before drafting their (companies) policies and mandates. It further warned the employers, who were firing the employees, on putting negative remarks about their company's work culture on their social media platforms.

Basically, National Labour Relations Act was passed to protect the rights of the labour unions, who wanted to bring out revolutionary changes in the work environment of their respective organizations and conditions of the employees as a whole.

The recent NLRB rulings suggested the employers :-

i) to avoid blanket prohibitions on its employees in respect to the usage of social media platforms.

ii) to be specific and elaborate on company's confidential data or business loopholes, which must not be leaked on any platform.

iii) to brief the employees about all inappropriate points which should be ignored by them or otherwise face legal actions.

iv) to not restrict workers and co-workers in building a group on social-media platforms.

v) not to ask for employees social media passwords or account details.