It was bound to happen at some point. An employee criticizes her boss on a social networking site, shares those remarks with co-workers, and the employer objects. Call in the legal system — in this case, in the form of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
An employer’s firing of a female emergency medical technician because she criticized her supervisor on her Facebook page and then traded messages about the negative comments with co-workers amounted to reprisal under federal labor laws, the NLRB charged in a recent complaint.
The board concluded that the Facebook postings constituted “concerted activity” protected from reprisal under the National Labor Relations Act. The statute protects employees against reprisal for talking to co-workers on their own time about their jobs, including remarks critical of managers.
The employer, American Medical Response, said that the technician, Dawnmarie Souza, was fired because of complaints over over her work and defended its policy prohibiting workers from depicting the company in any way on the Internet.
An administrative law judge will hear the case on Jan. 25, 2011.
