On January 25, 2012, the National Labor Relations Board's ("NLRB") Acting General Counsel ("AGC") Lafe Solomon issued a second report on unfair labor practice cases involving social media issues. We discussed his earlier report in our Act Now Advisory of October 4, 2011.

The new report covers an additional 14 cases, all of which fall into the same two categories as the cases discussed in the earlier report, namely: (1) termination of employees resulting from statements made in social media forums about their working conditions or their employers; and/or (2) claims that an employer's social media policy violates the National Labor Relations Act (the "Act") because its prohibitions may "chill" employees in the exercise of their rights under the Act to engage in concerted activity for their mutual aid and protection. Again, the report emphasizes that the Act's provisions apply to workplaces where the employees are not represented by a union and where there is no union activity, as well as to unionized employees.

All of the cases addressed in the report are at the earliest stages of litigation, and thus, represent only the view of the General Counsel's office on these issues. They do spotlight, however, the refinement of the AGC's views on social media and, because the AGC has the authority to determine whether a complaint will be issued, they offer employers additional guidance on how to approach both the drafting and the enforcement of their social media policies in order to avoid litigation.