Section 7 and Social Media. Confidentiality of Complaint Investigations. Employers—whether their workforce is unionized or not—must consider potential liability under the National Labor Relations Act (“Act”) when promulgating social media policies. In the end, social media policies are not a "one size fits all" proposition. But employers rarely face Section 7 issues since claims under Section 7 must be asserted in charges filed with the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”), and few employees do so. Obscenities alone—even when viewed by an employer's customers—do not deprive employees engaged in protected concerted activity of the National Labor Relations Act's ("NLRA" or the "Act") protections. The right to collectively bargain, unionize or take any other concerted activity comes from Section 7 of the NLRA. Employees (but not managers) are protected by Section 7 of the NLRA, whether or not they are members of a union. to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection. The following strategies can help reduce the likelihood of a lawsuit or regulatory action due to a violation of Section 7 of the NLRA associated with employee use of social media: Review employment policies relating to social media. . The Office of the General Counsel to the NLRB recently released an Advice Memorandum shedding new light on the types of social media rules that are permissible in the wake of the Board’s December 2017 ruling in The Boeing Co, 365 NLRB No. The NLRB conducts its examinations of social media policies in the context of NLRA Section 7 which states that “[e]mployees shall have the right . . to engage in. These clauses exclude protected Section 7 activity from the scope of a social media policy. In that case, the Board set a new standard for evaluating the lawfulness of workplace rules under Section 7 of the NLRA. The underpinning for the Board to review employer social media policies is found in Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act, which states in relevant part: Employees shall have the right . Off-duty access to the company's facilities isn't the only place where your business might need a Section 7 exception. The NLRB has also been clear that blanket social media policies must respect the protected activity of employees to discuss labor concerns. So held the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit when recently affirming the National Labor Relations Board's ("NLRB" or "the Board") decision in Three D, LLC (Triple Play), 361 … By blocking all access to social media by employees, an employer may run the risk of violating federal labor laws. Do Social Media Policies Violate Employees' NLRA Section 7 Rights? . 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