45°
Rushing to the medic’s help, the federal agency that enforces employee-organizing rights contends that Dawnmarie Souza was not only wrongfully terminated by American Medical Response of Connecticut, Inc., but that the company also denied her union representation during an investigatory interview.
The NLRB also charges that the New Haven-area company “maintained and enforced an overly broad blogging and Internet posting policy.”
What’s important here from an overall view is that this is the first time the NLRB has entered the ongoing legal fray between employees and companies that fire them over online postings.
So we now have the potential for a groundbreaking case that could advance the legal argument of whether the Constitution protects such expression, or whether companies can pink-slip any minions who — instead of ranting from a bar stool — air their grievances online.
Private companies who hire employees “at will” still retain the ability to can them for no reason, as long as they do it legally.
However, someone who posts about a co-worker having to put in unpaid time could be considered protected, because the post reveals an illegal practice.
“I certainly do think they could prevail,” labor lawyer Leon Rosenblatt told the Hartford Courant. “We could see more and more of this in the future.”
At the same time, Saranne Murray, a management lawyer, told the Courant that AMR could argue “that if she posted a comment that was disparaging of her supervisor, that would be disruptive of working relationships, and therefore not protected.”
A fifth of companies surveyed in 2009 by Proofpoint, an email security firm, reported disciplining employees for violating social networking policies. Unofficials estimates have doubled that figure since.
The trouble in this case began a year ago, a short time after Souza emerged from a second battle with breast cancer, when a client complained about her.
After being directed by her boss, Frank Filardo, to write up an incident report, the mother of two requested representation from Teamsters Local 443. Instead, the complaint says, she was “threatened with discipline” for asking.
“Later that day from her home computer, the employee posted a negative remark about the supervisor on her personal Facebook page, which drew supportive responses from her co-workers, and led to further negative comments about the supervisor from the employee,” the NLRB said in a press release.
She was fired three weeks later.
American Medical Response responded in a release that says the charges are “without merit” and that Souza was fired because of “multiple, serious issues.”
The NLRB says Facebook postings are protected under the First Amendment and that the company’s policy on online activity is illegal — including a provision that forbids employees from “making disparaging, discriminatory or defafmatory comments” about the company, co-workers, bosses, or even competitiors without AMR’s permission.
“Such provisions constitute interference with employees in the exercise of their right to engage in protected concerted activity,” Acting NLRB Regional Director John Cotter wrote.
A hearing before a NLRB administrative law judge is set for January.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Ramapo and receive free news updates.
