Fellow blogger Jon Hyman, among others, has already written an eloquent critique of the latest report from the Office of the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board on social media and protected concerted activity, and Dan Schwartz has a good roundup of what labor lawyers are saying about it (and also a call for employers not to overreact). If you haven't read Jon and Dan, you ought to do so.
I was interviewed by LXBN TV recently about this topic, but today I'd like to expand on it a bit with the help of my law partner and labor "gladiator," Cliff Nelson. To hear Cliff tell it, he is a low-tech kind of guy. Maybe because of this, he had a fresh insight into the NLRB's social media policy that I haven't heard anywhere else.
Cliff notes (hahaha - get it?) that an overbroad no-solicitation policy can result in setting aside a union election, and he says that the same could be true where an employer has an overbroad social media policy. So, even if you agree with Dan Schwartz that generally it's premature to rush out to rewrite your social media policy, you might want to do it post haste if you think your company is vulnerable to a union campaign -- especially with the new "streamlined" election procedures, which don't give employers much time to get ready.
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