Topic: Employment and labor

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Proposed California law to further limit settlement confidentiality

Photo of Phil Di Tullio (US)By Phil Di Tullio (US) on Posted in Employment and labor
During May of 2021, the California Senate passed a law further prohibiting the use of broad confidentiality and nondisparagement provisions in agreements between a company and its employees. The new law expands on a 2018 law inspired by the #metoo movement, which banned settlement agreements preventing an employee from disclosing facts underlying claims for sexual … Continue reading

CEO’s social media posts about former employee actionable as defamation

Photo of Phil Di Tullio (US)By Phil Di Tullio (US) on Posted in Employment and labor
The California court of appeals recently allowed a defamation claim to proceed against a company’s CEO for libelous social media posts made about a former employee after her termination. According to her complaint, the employee had been the company’s only female senior executive during her tenure. Following a brief, rocky stint with the company, the … Continue reading

Parties May Provide Notice to Class Members Through Social Media

Photo of Phil Di Tullio (US)By Phil Di Tullio (US) on Posted in Employment and labor, Litigation
With the prevalence of employment and labor class action lawsuits, particularly those based on alleged wage and hour violations, the nuances of defending those suits and administering potential settlements are paramount to California employers. One lesser-discussed feature of the class action process is the notice requirement to class members. Throughout the lifespan of the action, … Continue reading

Federal District Court in California finds favoring younger, “social media savvy” employees may constitute age-based harassment

Photo of Phil Di Tullio (US)By Phil Di Tullio (US) on Posted in Employment and labor
In recent posts, we have discussed how social media use and the enforcement of social media policies can have major implications in wage and hour lawsuits against U.S. employers. Now, a recent case in U.S. District Court in California suggests that social media can also play a role in discrimination suits.… Continue reading

Social Media Activity Used as Evidence of Employees Violating Cell Phone Policy

Photo of Phil Di Tullio (US)By Phil Di Tullio (US) on Posted in Employment and labor, Social media policies
In an August 1, 2019 post titled “Without Proper Enforcement, Even the Strongest Social Media Policies May Not Protect Employers,” we discussed how enforcement of corporate social media policies was paramount to protecting employers from liability stemming from employee violations of that policy. That post discussed how employers must take care not only to formulate … Continue reading

California companies should reevaluate how they classify social media freelancers

Photo of Phil Di Tullio (US)By Phil Di Tullio (US) on Posted in Employment and labor
With companies increasingly turning to social media to meet their advertising needs, employers must take a closer look at how they classify social media consultants and freelancers. Although larger companies may have internal social media departments, many small companies contract outside social media consultants who work on an hourly basis. Typically, companies were able to … Continue reading

New California laws may require review of social media policies

Photo of Phil Di Tullio (US)By Phil Di Tullio (US) on Posted in Employment and labor, Social media policies
The use of social media by employees is as fraught as it is widespread, and creates tremendous legal risk for the employer. Indeed, employers are wise to require adherence to a thorough policy regarding employee use of social media both inside and outside of work. The best policies will aim to sidestep potential legal landmines … Continue reading

Inappropriate employee social media activity as a defense against employment discrimination claims

By on Posted in Employment and labor
It seems inevitable in today’s digital world that employers will sometimes discover that an employee has posted inappropriate statements or other inappropriate content on social media. The employer must then decide how to respond. Although the desired level of discipline will vary depending on the severity of the content, some statements are so egregious that … Continue reading

The #MeToo Movement: When Employees Take Their Complaints to Social Media

By on Posted in Employment and labor, Social media policies
As we are all aware, the news has been populated with stories concerning allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct, particularly in the entertainment and media industries as well as government institutions. These stories have contributed to the “#MeToo” movement, which originated on Twitter and other social media websites in late 2017 and has since become … Continue reading

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act: Considerations for Employers

By on Posted in Employment and labor
Although the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) (18 U.S.C. § 1030) is a federal statute that primarily protects against unauthorized computer access such as hacking, it can also impact employers in the realm of social media.  Originally enacted in 1984, CFAA makes it illegal to access knowingly or intentionally a “protected computer” without authorization … Continue reading

Constructive dismissal or scorned husband? A closer look at Niland v Ntabeni NO and others

Photo of Lovanya MoodleyBy Lovanya Moodley on Posted in Employment and labor
In a digital age where there are billions of active social media users globally it is conceivable that employees engage in activities and posts on media platforms, that may result in their dismissal. However, an employee’s social media posts can also be scrutinised outside of the misconduct space. In Nilan v Nthabeni (2017) 5 BLLR … Continue reading

Unemployment Benefits Lost Over Social Media Post

Photo of Heather SherrodBy Heather Sherrod on Posted in Employment and labor
Even when an employee is terminated for cause, it can be difficult to fight an employee’s claim for unemployment benefits. A September 2017 ruling from the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania may provide employers a new route to combat meritless unemployment claims. In most states, an unemployed individual may file for and receive unemployment benefits if … Continue reading

How to use social media – and the consequences if you step out of line

Photo of Sinal Govender (SA)Photo of Lovanya MoodleyBy Sinal Govender (SA) and Lovanya Moodley on Posted in Employment and labor, Social media policies
In South Africa, employees are under the mistaken belief that what they do in their time away from the office, specifically on social media, is private and beyond the reach of their employer’s control. They fail to consider that they could face disciplinary action for their online rants and comments. This could be fatal to … Continue reading

Anonymity of former employee reviews

Photo of Heather SherrodBy Heather Sherrod on Posted in Employment and labor
In March of 2017, a California court of appeals prohibited the disclosure of an individual’s identity after the individual anonymously posted negative information about his former employer on the website Glassdoor. Glassdoor, Inc. operates a website that allows individuals to post reviews anonymously about their employment experiences.  One such post was published to the website … Continue reading

Private social media posts can get you kicked out of university and worse

Photo of Sinal Govender (SA)By Sinal Govender (SA) on Posted in Employment and labor
Each year Harvard University, one of the world’s most prestigious universities, receives over 30,000 applications from prospective students for about 2,000 places in its first year class. Recently, ten of those successful applicants, due to graduate in 2021, had their offers of admission revoked before they set foot onto campus.  The reason?  The content of … Continue reading

NLRB Reviews and Approves Northwestern University’s Revised Football Handbook Social Media Policy

Photo of Heather SherrodBy Heather Sherrod on Posted in Employment and labor, Social media policies
On January 1, 2017, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) released an advice memorandum (dated September 22, 2016) that reviewed and approved Northwestern University’s revised Football Handbook’s social media policy. The NLRB Office of the General Counsel, which prepared the advice memorandum, was asked to advise whether the university’s Football Handbook policies, including its social … Continue reading

Not all employee complaints on Twitter are concerted activity

Photo of Heather SherrodBy Heather Sherrod on Posted in Employment and labor
Earlier this year, we discussed that a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) administrative law judge found that an employee’s tweets could be considered protected “concerted activity” in Chipotle Services LLC d/b/a Chipotle Mexican Grill.  As a reminder, the administrative law judge determined that portions of Chipotle’s outdated Social Media Code of Conduct policy violated the … Continue reading

NLRB seeks cases on internal co. messaging

Photo of Heather SherrodBy Heather Sherrod on Posted in Employment and labor
The General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) in March of 2016 issued memorandum 16-01 requiring the Board’s Regional Offices, which investigate and prosecute unfair labor practices, to submit all cases or complaints related to employee e-mail and other electronic systems to the NLRB Division of Advice.  The General Counsel explained in the … Continue reading

We’re back, with our top five social media stories of 2015

Photo of Susan Ross (US)Photo of Nerushka BowanPhoto of Mayura Noordyke (US)Photo of Karen Sie (CA)By Susan Ross (US), Nerushka Bowan, Mayura Noordyke (US) and Karen Sie (CA) on Posted in Copyright, Defamation, Employment and labor, Fraud, General, Privacy, Security
The Social Media Law Bulletin is back! The ongoing interest of our readers as well as the increasing impact of social media led us to re-launch the Social Media Law Bulletin. We will be bringing you coverage of one or two items approximately each week, but in the meantime, we thought we would give you … Continue reading

NLRB approves social media policy disclaimer language

Photo of Heather SherrodBy Heather Sherrod on Posted in Employment and labor, Social media policies
The Office of the General Counsel (OGC) of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently released another advice memorandum providing enforcement guidance on employer social media policies. This time, the OGC reviewed a company social medial policy which required employees to post a specific disclaimer that they were sharing their own views and not the … Continue reading

Facebook “Likes” Found to Be Protected Activity

Photo of Heather SherrodBy Heather Sherrod on Posted in Employment and labor
On August 22, 2014, in Three D. LLC d/b/a Triple Play Sports Bar and Grille, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) held that an employer violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) after terminating employees for commenting on and “Liking” a former employee’s Facebook post. In January 2011, a former Triple Play employee complained on her … Continue reading
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