As companies see employees continue to use social media networks, such as Twitter and Facebook, they are struggling to implement policies that are not only effective, but also legal.
Several examples of cases involving employees disciplined or fired over comments they’ve posted about their employers on the Internet, and the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) reaction to those instances, has led to some confusion over what companies may and may not include in their social media policies.
“Most of the social media policies that we’ve been presented are very, very overbroad,” said the NLRB’s General Counsel Lafe Solomon in a statement. “They say you can’t disparage or criticize the company in any way on social media, and that is not true under the law.”
In the past year, the NLRB has received more than 100 complaints over confusing social media policies. Solomon discussed 14 of the board’s social media cases in a recent report.
