For those of you who participated in Manatt’s webinar last Tuesday, September 27, 2011 – New Rules for Social Media in the Workplace – you may be particularly interested to hear the recent outcome of a case against a Chicago-area BMW dealership that was discussed during the webinar. On Friday, September 30, 2011, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) issued a press release announcing that an NLRB Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) ruled on Wednesday that the dealership did not wrongfully terminate an employee for his Facebook postings.
In February 2011, the NLRB issued a Complaint against the dealership asserting that it had wrongfully terminated a salesperson who posted on Facebook photographs and comments critical of the dealership. The salesperson and other employees were unhappy about hot dogs and other snacks that the dealership served to customers during its launch event for a new BMW model. They thought the poor quality of the food would negatively impact sales and their commissions as a result, and shared their concerns during a staff meeting. Following the event, the salesperson posted on his Facebook page photographs and sarcastic comments about the food and beverages served. He also posted photographs of an accident involving another salesperson in which a vehicle had been driven into a pond in front of a related dealership during a test drive. The dealership was informed of the postings and, after asking him what he was thinking by posting things that were embarrassing to the dealership, subsequently fired the salesperson.
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