NLRB Issues Guidance on Social Media Policies

Yesterday, August 18, 2011, the National Labor Relations Board issued a 24-page memorandum summarizing the facts and outcome of the social media cases over the past year.  Several of the cases included in the memorandum are discussed in earlier posts (NLRB OKs Employee Bad-Mouthing on Social Media, Update: The NLRB Seesaws On Social Media Bad-Mouthing).  The introduction states the reason for the memorandum:

Recent developments in the Office of General Counsel have presented emerging issues concerning the protected and/or concerted nature of employees’ Facebook and Twitter postings, the coercive impact of a union’s Facebook and YouTube postings, and the lawfulness of employers’ social media policies and rules.  This report discusses these cases…I hope that this report will be of assistance to practitioners and human resources professionals.

 Another resource for employers on the issue is “A Survey of Social Media Issues Before the NLRB” issued by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on August 5, 2011.