The Impact of Social Media on Employee Rights under the NLRA

This report examines the significant impact of social media on employee rights, particularly within the context of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). It highlights how the NLRB protects employees' rights concerning workplace discussions, even when these conversations occur on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. The report discusses the evolution of employer policies in response to social media usage, emphasizing that these policies cannot infringe upon employee rights related to discussing wages, working conditions, or forming unions. It also covers the guidelines provided by the NLRB to help employers create compliant social media policies, ensuring a balance between business interests and employee protections. The report references relevant literature and provides an overview of key legal considerations in the digital age, where social media has become a primary means of communication and expression for employees regarding their work-related concerns.

Running Head: SOCIAL MEDIA IMPACT ON EMPLOYEE RIGHTS
IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON THE RIGHTS OF EMPLOYEES UNDER
THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS ACT

SOCIAL MEDIA IMPACT ON EMPLOYEE RIGHTS
Impact of Social Media on Rights of Employees under the National Labor Relations Act
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) states that employer’s often protects contents
that employees post on the social media websites that violates employees’ rights (Lengnick-Hall,
Lengnick-Hall, Andrade & Drake, 2009). The NLRA aims at protecting employees who come
together to bring about changes in their employment conditions. Social media upsurge impact
has been felt in almost across all sectors and domain. Employees are currently resorting to using
posts through social media websites in order to highlight an issue or concern. The NLRB aims at
protecting rights of the employees, in addressing a work condition in presence or absence of a
union. Such work related conversation is currently extended to conversations that are conducted
on the social media, such as Twitter and Facebook.
The NLRA includes a federal law that allows employees right to bargain collectively by
use of representatives and unionize. NLRB’s has received tremendous media support in the legal
community. NLRB’s new focus is to apply such rules in modern workplaces, where high usage
of social media is undertaken. The Board has certain guidelines that is applied by employers
while forming their social media policies or restricting employees to post a concern in the social
media website. Employer policies cannot prohibit activities that are protected by federal laws,
concerning discussion on wages or working conditions of employees. Moreover, employee’s
comments on social media are also not protected in relation to group activity amongst
employees. The impact of such laws on employees has led to greater usage of social media
website for reporting discussion and any work related conditions. Certain cases which earlier
were difficult to be reported have started coming to the forefront for solutions. The Board
provides discipline on social media posting. The general counsel investigates more and more
cases and continues in issuing guidance for law in the area.
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SOCIAL MEDIA IMPACT ON EMPLOYEE RIGHTS
Restrictions Evaluation of Employers on Workplace Discussions on Social Media
When an employee discusses regarding co-workers or regarding supervisor then it might
invite unfavorable actions from the management. There is law prevalent whereby employer can
regulate employees’ use of social media for discussing work-related concerns (El Ouirdi, El
Ouirdi, Segers & Henderickx, 2015). Employers have the right to form social media policies
where they could effectively prohibit employees from engaging in protected activities. However
such prohibitions should not interfere with employee rights under the NLRA. NLRB provides
guidelines which can act as recommendations for employers. Such guidelines aim at removing
blanket prohibitions on employee actions concerning social media usage. The federal law
protects employees to report regarding their company policies, talking about their job and also
complaining regarding their boss. The regulation prevents general banning of employees in
revealing confidential company information. NLRB provides that employees do possess the
rights to discuss regarding their salaries or bonuses in social media. Employers cannot restrict
employees in forming friends with co-workers on their personal social media pages. Employers
were advised to be more consistent when reviewing social media accounts of prospective
employees.
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SOCIAL MEDIA IMPACT ON EMPLOYEE RIGHTS
References
El Ouirdi, A., El Ouirdi, M., Segers, J., & Henderickx, E. (2015). Employees' use of social media
technologies: a methodological and thematic review. Behaviour & Information
Technology, 34(5), 454-464. doi: 10.1080/0144929X.2015.1004647. Retrieved from
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0144929X.2015.1004647
Lengnick-Hall, M. L., Lengnick-Hall, C. A., Andrade, L. S., & Drake, B. (2009). Strategic
human resource management: The evolution of the field. Human resource management
review, 19(2), 64-85. doi:10.1016/j.hrmr.2009.01.002. Retrieved from
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1053482209000035
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