I-21 – Sexual Harassment (Still), Political Tweeting, and Intersectional Discrimination
In today’s world — where social media has become a source of news for many — companies and individuals often find themselves the subject of negative and anonymous online comments. These comments can give rise to legal claims...more
A number of companies have adopted social media policies that address the types of things employees can post on social media even if it is the employee’s private social media page. While companies have the right to protect...more
Good faith and timing means everything in employment law. This episode of Employment Law Now provides an update from DC, discusses questions employers should be asking in today’s climate of troubling sexual harassment news,...more
Around the end of October, a photo of a government contractor employee flipping the bird to President Trump’s motorcade went viral after the woman made it her profile picture on Facebook. She was subsequently fired for a...more
What is an employer to do when an employee goes on a tirade at the work place or on social media? In general, an employee cannot be disciplined by his employer for statements about work-place concerns, such as wages or...more
Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act protects employees who engage in concerted activities for purposes of collective bargaining or for mutual aid and protection. How far that protection extends was tested in NLRB v....more
It’s hard to keep up with all the recent changes to labor and employment law. While it always seems to evolve at a rapid pace, the last few months have seen an unprecedented number of changes. April 2017 was another month...more
The Second Circuit said last week that an employer violated the National Labor Relations Act when it fired an employee who criticized a supervisor on Facebook during an election. The catch here is that the Second Circuit...more
In a ruling that could leave employers fuming and possibly cursing, a federal appellate court ruled that an employee who used a public Facebook page to curse out not just his boss, but also his boss’s mother and entire...more
It’s ironic, isn’t it? While the EEOC could find an employer liable for tolerating racist or sexist remarks by employees, the NLRB has repeatedly found employers liable for failing to do so under the guise of protecting...more
Somehow, hackers manage access to your radio station audio chain and broadcast alternate programming with indecent or profane content. What will be the FCC’s reaction? Do you notify the FCC? Originally published on Radio...more
Employers took note last year when the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that “liking” a Facebook post can qualify as protected activity under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The NLRB held that the owner of...more
To Accommodate or Not to Accommodate? U.S. Supreme Court Weighs in on Pregnant Employees - Why it matters: The U.S. Supreme Court decided the first of two major employment law cases this term when a 6-3 majority of...more
Over the past few years, we’ve warned our employer clients that discipline of employees for social media activity has become risky business. The National Labor Relations Board has taken the position that employee commentary...more
In 2005, Congress passed the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005, increasing potential maximum forfeitures against broadcast stations from $25,000 for each day of a violation subject to a $250,000 maximum per violation...more
An administrative law judge (ALJ) of the National Labor Relations Board (the "Board") recently found that a Hooters employee who cursed at her co-worker during an employee bikini contest was wrongfully terminated by her...more
The choice of what to name your child is often a process that parents take great care in selecting—conducting countless Internet searches, pouring over “baby name” books, and researching family histories to find the perfect...more
Yep, that's right. The employee's outburst is too obscene to reproduce on the Blog. Suffice to say that the employee, who was employed for only about two months: (1) called the owner of the company a crook and a number of...more
In the words of the immortal Yogi Berra, “it’s like déjà vu all over again.” For the second time in a month, the Nasty Language National Labor Relations Board has decided that an employee should not have been fired for...more
[Ed. Note: We know we’re a little late to the party with this one, but we just read the decision and had to share it for anyone else who has been in a news blackout for the past couple weeks.] You’d think that an...more
Employers beware: the National Labor Relations Board (“Board”) decided that an employer, a car dealership, unlawfully discharged an employee after his lewd outburst in a meeting. On remand from the United States Court of...more
If an employee curses at and blatantly disrespects the owner of the company for whom he works, most people would reasonably conclude that the employee can be discharged. However, a recent decision issued by the National Labor...more
Here’s the truth: we are a litigious society. For a lot of reasons beyond the scope of this blog, a smarter workforce with ever-increasing access to information and resources continues to file employment lawsuits in record...more
Several weeks ago, in both a tongue-in-cheek and concerned fashioned, we wrote about a federal court decision that concluded an employer had to tolerate an employee’s admitted theft as a reasonable accommodation for her...more
In its recent 2-1 decision in Plaza Auto Center, Inc., 360 NLRB No.117 (May 28, 2014), the National Labor Relations Board again demonstrated its pro-employee bias and its willingness to twist a circuit court mandate and facts...more