Labor & Employment Law › Science, Computers & Technology › Constitutional Law

Why Non-Unionized High Tech Companies Still Need to Pay Attention to the National Labor Relations Board

Overview - The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is the agency that administers the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which is the law that protects employee rights to unionize and collectively bargain with...more

Corporate Law Report: Managing Cyber Risks, BYOD, Obama's NLRB Crisis, Iran Sanctions, and More [Video]

Our latest Corporate Law Report looks at: - top ways to manage cyber risks in the workplace; - the growing trend of employees bringing their own electronic devices (BYOD) to work; - new reporting requirements as a result...more

Supreme Court of Canada Decision Demonstrates the Importance of Workplace Computer Policies

In R. v. Cole, 2012 SCC 53, the majority of the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that it was unconstitutional for the police to search the workplace computer of a high school teacher without a warrant. The Supreme Court held...more

NLRB Is Finding Ways To Implement Its Employee Rights Notice Posting, In Spite Of Legal Challenges

On September 28, 2012, a three-member panel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) affirmed the decision of an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) who upheld a car dealership’s firing of a salesperson that was based on a...more

Supreme Court Rejects Agency Interpretation; Pharmaceutical Reps Exempt From Overtime

In Christopher et al. v. Smithkline Beecham Corp.,--- S.Ct. ----, 2012 WL 2196779, U.S., June 18, 2012 (NO. 11-20412, C.D.O.S, 6646, the Supreme Court rejected the Department of Labor's interpretation of its own regulations...more

eWorkplace Policies – Social-Media, Privacy & Internet-Security

Traditional concerns for employers have included: harassing or other discriminatory actions; other conduct leading to liability to third-parties; forbidden fraternizing; criminal activity; “frolic and detour” or other...more

Regulate employee technology use without becoming a target

Throughout the digital workplace, email, social media and text message communications frequently yield the “smoking gun” evidence that results in employment claims against employers. Many employers seek to limit their...more

Can You Go to Jail for Lying on Facebook?

During last week’s oral argument before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on the case of U.S. v. Nosal, 642 F.3d 781 (9th Cir. 2011), reh’g en banc granted (Oct. 27, 2011), members of the Court, including most...more

Child Porn Found In the Workplace: Affirmative Duty to Report

Misbehaving by sending inappropriate text messages, or by striking up inappropriate internet relationships is not limited just to politicians. A hazard of our ever-present connection to the internet is the flood of...more

Social Media Policies for Employers: A Few Notes on the NLRA

In a December 9 post on Erickson’s Social Networking Law Blog, Dickinson attorney Megan Erickson discussed recent action by the National Labor Relations Board, pointing out that employees’ Facebook posts or other online...more

NLRA May Protect Your Employees' Facebook Rants (Regardless of Union Status!)

The National Labor Relations Board recently accused an employer of engaging in unfair labor practices when it fired an employee who complained about her supervisor on her personal Facebook page. Although this complaint has...more

E-mail, Texting and Privacy Rights in the Workplace

This article was originally published in the Westlaw Journal Telecommunications Industry Report I do it. You do it. Virtually everybody does it. The "it" is using your computer at work, or your company-issued cell phone,...more

Employment, Labor and Benefits Alert: Supreme Court Rules that Private Text Messages Are not Always Private

On June 17, 2010, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in City of Ontario. v. Quon, finding that an employer —the police department of the City of Ontario, California — did not violate a police sergeant’s...more

Supreme Court Concludes Employer Had Legitimate Interest in Reviewing Employee's Text Messaging

In an opinion released June 17, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded—in City of Ontario, Cal. v. Quon1—that a governmental employer had a legitimate interest in reviewing the text messages that an employee sent during...more

U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Employer’s Inspection of Employee Text Messages

This morning, the United States Supreme Court issued its opinion in the closely watched matter of City of Ontario v. Quon.1 This case raised the question of whether a public-sector employer violated an employee’s Fourth...more

City of Ontario v. Quon

United States Supreme Court Decision

On June 17, 2010, the Supreme Court issued its decision in City of Ontario v. Quon, addressing the question of whether a city government's search of transcripts of a public employee's text messaging over a city-issued pager...more

New Jersey Supreme Court Limits Employer’s Review of Emails Sent Using Company Laptop

Does an employee have a reasonable expectation of privacy when accessing her personal, web-based email account from a company-owned computer? In Stengart v. Loving Care Agency, Inc., the New Jersey Supreme Court held that an...more

Court Limits Right of Employers to Obtain Stored Text Messages from Vendors' Servers

In a decision entered on June 18, 2008, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit made important findings concerning the right of employers to obtain and read employees’ text messages sent over...more

Fenwick Employment Brief

IN THIS ISSUE: *NLRB Prohibits Use Of Work Email For Union Organizing *Union Must Be Allowed To Distribute Handbills In Shopping Mall *Employer Liable For Retaliation And Failure To Engage In Interactive Process *NEWS...more