Slashdot Mirror
Worker Rights Extend To Facebook, Says NLRB
wjousts writes "American Medical Response of Connecticut had a policy that barred employees from depicting the company 'in any way' on Facebook or other social media. The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that this policy runs afoul of the National Labor Relations Act, which gives employees the right to form unions and prohibits employers from punishing workers for discussing working conditions."
Sure...you can say/write whatever you want.
If you write that you hate your boss...in a public forum...with your name...don't expect your boss to buy your lunch for you. ...and don't expect them to forget about that when it comes time to pick employees for layoffs.
You can say/write whatever you want...just be ready to accept the consequences.
-JJS
The Connecticut company denied the allegations, saying they were without merit. “The employee in question was discharged based on multiple, serious complaints about her behavior,” it said.
Sure, sure. That's all fully documented in the employee's HR file... which you're about to show to The Board... right?
Another slashdot story that takes an established event/concept/thing and makes a big deal about it because somehow facebook/twitter/social-net-dujour is involved.
I always wonder if these stories have organic origins, or bubbled up from some PR department.
Frankly I'm a little surprised - since in my experience employees are more or less slaves in the US. The entire legal structure seems set up for whatever is easiest and cheapest for employers to do whatever they wish. Employees can sue, and that is often the de-facto suggestion whenever anyone in the US has a problem, but frankly a lot of situations could be avoided if they had a strong legal framework like every other developed country.
No holiday time, no sick leave, no maternity leave, no restrictions on hours worked, no mandated breaks, few health and safety regulations, can be fired without notice or reason, can legally discriminate, etc. It is like working in the third world. Between this and health care the US is low on my list of places I wish to work.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
With that logic, North Korea has freedom of speech.
"You can say/write whatever you want...just be ready to accept the consequences."
The consequence just happens to be capital punishment or forced labor for years.
Some 500M Facebook users would disagree with you. At those amounts, pretty much everything that happens there is stuff that matters. You could just stop reading these if you want to. I'm also sure that it would only take a very simple greasemonkey script to hide all news that contain the word "Facebook".
I worked at Verizon Wireless for a few years before leaving due to a better offer from a competing telecom. I personally knew people who had been written up and threatened with termination by their management for statements as simple as 'Work sucked today so glad to be home.'
1918. The Commmies revolted in 1917. Download "REDS".
I believe one of the aspects the NLRB is protecting here is the right to complain and collaborate via email or other electronic means. collaboration is key here. You would not be protected in speech based on saying something like "My boss John Doe is an incompetent asshole" because there is no collaboration there... its just a statement. I could be wrong here, but as I understand it, you would need to add in something to the effect of " my boss john doe is an incompetent asshole and would anyone like to start a group or get together and talk about it?" The reason goes back to some basic things like the right to form unions with out being fired, threatened or physically stopped (this used to be very common (Pinkertons)). This is not a groundbreaking decision here... any labor lawyer could tell you that... the real headline here is that this is how it should be and soon the Congress will most assuredly do everything they can (short of blowing up the NLRB) to stomp this out of existence.
I'm at an organization where a similar situation is proceeding through the HR hell.
The unfortunate part is that as an at-will employee, which we all basically are at my job, they have to do something highly illegal to actually get sued for firing you. You can show up and pick your nose and get fired for it, and it's just "at will."...
Now, if they actually said "Because of this" you might have a better case, because then they're stepping on first amendment stuff. But if they said "Because we want to" you'd be SOL. People don't get that your first amendment rights protect you from jail time, not protect you from any consequence at all.
I wish there was a choice that said "Factually Wrong -1" when I mod.
- Is an employee considered property, or an 'asset'?
Disposable property unless C-level. See employment laws and attitudes towards compensation in the US in that matter.
- Can an employee be forced to do labor?
Yes. See the forced training of offshore replacements.
- Does an employee who does not want to do said labor walk away?
The cost is made high enough that they can't walk away. See our current economy.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
The reason goes back to some basic things like the right to form unions with out being fired, threatened or physically stopped (this used to be very common (Pinkertons)).
These days, the physical threats are replaced with lawyer hit teams like The Burke Group, Jackson Lewis, and the like.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
All sounds very civil but that not how it works here (U.S.). Most states have Right To Work laws (look it up, it sucks - basically union busting/slow erosion)
Not if you live in the Free North.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Somebody mod the parent as insightful.
This is how I understand it from discussions on the news this morning. I think the employee in question was protected because after bitching about her work, several co-workers chimed in with their opinions. That made it a collaborative discussion about working conditions and protected.
that is exactly correct. it is called a concerted protected activity!
If you gonna cite, then cite right.
Also, "stories" by samzenpus are actually random copy/pastes from digg done by a bot.
It is an experiment into mob sourcing.
Nobody checks validity of those stories before they are posted.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Republicans are working furiously to gut this law as we speak.
It will die on a Friday night sometime just before Christmas.
in Connecticut is an Indonesian news source?
N/T
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
As another Ohioan:
Ohio doesn't have RTW, but if Head Banker-Elect Kasich has his way with the General Assembly, Ohio might just get that abomination.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
I hate people who don't share my point of view too. :)
Perhaps you only define freedom of speech as a legal term (and only in the US legal system and only as it appears in the constitution) but you cannot deny that the concept is much bigger than that. Society can restrict freedom of speech in unlegislated ways.
... in a cross walk. "... gives workers the right ..."
Often pedestrians are dead right when they jaywalk into 40mph traffic and get hit, even though they have the right of way in the crosswalk. I've seen women pushing a baby carriage, simply walk into traffic because they have a right to, putting their child and themselves in a life threatening situation by jaywalking in front of 40mph traffic. All they need to do is wait for the light to change, but they don't. Sure they can sue, if they are still alive. Is it worth risking your kid's life to save 3 minutes waiting for the light to change?
That's what this case reminds me of. Why fuck around? Is it really worth it to risk your job because you bitched about work on facebook? You have every right to express yourself after all.
Don't kid yourself. It's the size of the regexp AND how you use it that counts.
You might have no problem, but things are generally against the person who seeks work. For the rest of us, large problems exist in finding/keeping work.
The amount of people looking for work is used against both people at work and people looking for work.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Another Slashdot commenter that takes a perfectly valid article that should be on the site, and whines because it isn't Apple felching, Linux masturbation or Microsoft bashing.
I always wonder if these posters have organic origins, or if they've been assembled in a giant, automated robotic facility that produces androids capable of posting large numbers of inane posts. ...Also, suck it up, Princess. Facebook is on the Internets. The story moves beyond Facebook, to potential interpretation of existing law with regard to something on the Internets. A valid YRO story, to be sure, and absolutely a valid Slashdot story.
In the US, if you're hourly (at least in the places I've worked) the employer is required to give you a 15 minute paid break in every 4 hour period, and a half hour (unpaid) meal break in every 8 hour period. Time off for vacation and medical may also have been mandated, but every place I've worked has given at least two weeks/year vacation + one week's worth of medical.
Best Slashdot Co
Freedom! Horrible, horrible freedom!
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
Neither do US workers. Health care plans: can't take them with you and, because they're paid by the employer (tax deductible), the rates can go through the roof, making buying your own impossible.
or did New Jersey slide south, 'case pretty much everything the AC said seems to apply here. New York too afaik.
Some bring out the best in others, some the worst. Some bring out far more.
There are boundaries to speech that involve direct legal consequences: libel, slander, trade secret laws, state secrecy laws, etc.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
No, Slashdot didn't like the original NY Times article I submitted because of the weird semi-sortof-paywall thing they have. The linked instead to a Jakarta paper that said essentially the same thing (and credits NY Times at the very bottom of the article).
[Seriously, he best article on a worker dismissal] in Connecticut is an Indonesian news source?
Yes. Any US journalist would have been fired for writing about it.
So we're getting our news on the US National Labor Relations Board making a ruling about a dispute involving a US company's policy of prohibiting posting about work to another US company's website from an Indonesian news purveyor ... who quoted it from a US newspaper anyway??