The National Labor Relationship Board

1. Find at least one case or article online regarding this topic, and briefly explain the facts of the case, and the determination of the NLRB as to whether the employee was properly or improperly disciplined or terminated as a result of his or her use of social media to complain about, criticize, or publicly bash his or her company or boss. Provide the citation to the article that you discover. (Use the term concerted activity in your query or search to help you find one of these cases.) (25 points)

The National Labor Relationship Board (NLRB) is an independent federal agency with vested power to safeguard employees to organize and to help decide if they can have unions as their bargaining representative. Other functions of the NLRB are to investigate, facilitate and decide cases of unfair labor practice committed by private sector employers.

One particular issue that the NLRB is focused on today is the issue of employers disciplining employees for comments made on social media. According to a NixonPeabody web post, one of those cases is the Case 20-CA-35511 on April 27, 2012 in the decision against the retailer Bettie Page (Alerts/ Articles 2011). The case involved a new Bettie Page store opened in San Francisco in July 2011. Shortly after the opening, the employees felt the new store manager was not managing the store and the employees very well. Employees had many concerns including the late hours that involved closing the store later than all other stores in the neighborhood. The employees voiced their concerns with the store manager, the owner and the HR department of Betty page. One day when the store manager was out of town, with the permission of the store owner, the employees closed the store early and went home. When the store manager heard about the store closing early, she called and scolded one of the employees over the phone. The employees took it to Facebook to air their frustrations with the store manager. They were upset about the way they were treated and that nobody was doing anything about their concerns. The company learned about the posts and terminated all employees involved in social media conversation.

The NLRB Administrate Judge took the case and found that Bettie Page engaged in unfair labor practices when it discharged the three employees. The decision ordered Bettie Page to reinstate the employees to their former job and pay back wages. The decision was concluded that the Facebook comments were protected concerted activity because the postings were a continuation of the employees’ efforts to raise concerns about working late in an unsafe neighborhood. Betty Page argued that it had several legitimate reasons or discharging the employees but the decision held that the employer failed to prove it would have fired them even if they had not engaged in protected concerted activity.

Do you agree with the decision of the NLRB or court in the case that you described in Question #1 above? Why or why not? (1–3 paragraphs). (10 points)

I agree with the decision of the NLRB in the case of Betty Page vs. three fired employees due to Facebook comments. In my opinion, the ruling was fair because the employees had several voiced concerns via different channels without answers or acknowledgment. The store owner approved that they close earlier and the manager had no rights to discipline them due to lack of communications with owners and HR. The company followed their social media policy without an internal investigation in what really happened. The ruling was fair in regards that the employees received back pay and could go back to work within their initial role.

2. Assume that this case happened at a place where you have worked in the past, or where you work now (or want to work.) Give an example of how the decision in the case above could lead to better or worse employee relations in your company. (15 points)

By evaluating the case above, I think of my current place of employment and how the decision in this case could lead to better relations in my company. I am a financial advisor and work in a video telephony environment where we communicate with clients and piers via video on day-to-day basis. We provide financial advice and guidance in all aspects of financial planning. My company has very strict rules when it comes to social media correspondence. This is mainly to protect our client’s confidentiality as well as our company interests. This is a heavily regulated industry and any social media posting could be misunderstood and go viral which in result would damage our company reputation. Employees can use social media for personal purposes but not mention our company at any times.

To be honest, there is no reason in how this case could ever happen within my company. We have so many options when it comes to voicing our concerns. For once, all our management including the highest level of Directors have an open door policy. Our Directors walk the floor daily and we can talk to them at any time about anything. Our own managers are rewarded by creating a positive work environments