A recently-filed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) complaint asserts that a company’s social media policy, which forbids employees from engaging in certain activities on the Internet, violates federal labor law.

The complaint follows a charge filed with the NLRB by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 43, which alleged that an emergency medical services company had engaged in unfair labor practices through its application of a policy forbidding employees from making disparaging comments about their supervisors on the Internet.  The complaint alleges that an employee of the company was threatened by her supervisor with disciplinary action for requesting union representation for an investigatory interview, and that she, along with other employees, criticized the supervisor on the employee’s Facebook page.  The complaint alleges that the employee was then terminated because of her activities on Facebook and to discourage other employees from engaging in such activities.

The complaint alleges that by applying the company’s social media policy to terminate an employee who had, along with other employees, criticized a supervisor on her Facebook page, the company was “interfering with, restraining and coercing employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed in Section 7” of the National Labor Relations Act.  The rights guaranteed by the cited section include the right of employees to engage in “concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.”

Click here to read a copy of the NLRB complaint.