About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

56 B.C. L. Rev. 1217 (2015)
#Fired: The National Labor Relations Act and Employee Outbursts in the Age of Social Media

handle is hein.journals/bclr56 and id is 1219 raw text is: #FIRED: THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS ACT AND EMPLOYEE OUTBURSTS IN THE AGE OF SOCIAL MEDIA Abstract: The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) has long protected em- ployees' rights to engage in concerted activity for their mutual aid or protec- tion. Enacted in 1935, the NLRA could not have foreseen the twenty-first century collision between employment law and social media. When evaluating social media cases, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has had difficulty determining when an employee's social media post is an individual complaint or a protected concerted activity. This Note examines the NLRA and its protection of employees who have faced employment consequences for their social media activities. It argues that the NLRB should modify its approach in social media cases to account for the intent of the employee and the public nature of a social media post. INTRODUCTION Imagine a time before the advent of social media websites.' An emergen- cy medical responder has had a long day. Multiple calls, difficult patients, piles of paperwork, and an uncompromising boss have driven her to her wit's end. She arrives home and shouts to no one in particular, Leave it to my company to hire a mental patient as a supervisor! Assuming that the remarks are some- how overheard, the law provides no protection for the medical responder, and she could face discipline from her employer. More likely, however, the words spoken in the privacy of her home go unheard. The medical responder calms down, goes to sleep, and uneventfully returns to work in the morning. Fast forward to today. That same employee has had the same terrible day. After meeting with her supervisor, she goes home and makes the same excla- mation. This time, however, the statement is made on Facebook, and by click- ing post the employee publishes her remarks for her social network to view. Now, friends and coworkers can view the post, and some might even respond and express their own frustration. The message spreads through the employee's social network and beyond, eventually landing on the desk of her supervisor. See Advice Memorandum fromBarry J. Kearney, Assoc. Gen. Counsel, Div. of Advice, Office of the Gen. Counsel, Nat'l Labor Relations Bd., to Jonathan B. Kreisberg, Reg'1 Dir., Region 34, Office of the Gen. Counsel, Nat'l Labor Relations Bd. 3 (Oct. 5, 2010), available at http://apps.nlrb. gov/link/document.aspx/09031d458055b9c4, archivedathttp://perma.cc/MM5T-UTKU. The follow- ing is a hypothetical based on this memorandum. See id. 1217

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most