Email Updates

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Employee Tagged Partying in Facebook Photos Loses FMLA Case

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
11/12/2012
Disability & Leave, Social Media
An employee who was terminated after captured drinking and partying in Facebook photographs failed on her claims of Family and Medical Leave Act interference and retaliation.  The Sixth Circuit affirmed that the employer was justified in its honest belief that the festival-attending employee was absent fraudulently from work.  Jaszczyszyn v. Advantage Health Physician Network, No. 11-1697 (6th  Cir. Nov. 7, 2012). Sara Jaszczyszyn began working...
read more

Court Dismisses Employee Claims to Ownership of Linkedin Account

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
10/10/2012
Litigation, Social Media
Readers of this blog are well aware of the increased role that social media tools are playing in workplace lawsuits. While many of our recent posts have focused on NLRB decisions limiting employer social media policies, a recent federal court decision out of Pennsylvania emphasizes the importance of having a social media policy in place.  In Eagle v. Morgan, No. 2:11-cv-04303-RB (E.D. Pa. 10/4/12), the former president of a financial services...
read more

Employer Policy Prohibiting Social Media Use During Company Time Violates the NLRA

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
10/03/2012
Labor Law, Social Media
The NLRB keeps at it and tells us, once again, that social media policies are almost never going to pass any smell test.  An administrative law judge for the Board issued another decision that seemingly binds the hands of employers who seek to keep their employee productive and focused on work during work time.  In ECHOSTAR, Inc., No. 27-CA-066726 (ALJ Anderson, Sept. 20, 2012),  the ALJ ruled that EchoStar Technologies’ social media policy...
read more

NLRB Rules Facebook Firing is Legal But Still Strikes Down Employer Policy

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
10/02/2012
Labor Law, Social Media
On September 28, 2012, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) issued the latest decision in its determined effort to define the permissible scope of social media rules in the workplace.  In Karl Knauz Motors, Inc., 358 NLRB No. 164 (2012), the Board ruled that a BMW dealership did  not violate the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) when it fired a car salesman for photos and comments posted on his Facebook page.  However, the Board...
read more

NLRB Places New Restrictions on Social Media Policies

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
09/14/2012
Agency Activity, Labor Law, Social Media
As readers of this blog know, the National Labor Relations Board’s Acting General Counsel has had employer social media policies in his proverbial crosshairs for the past 18 months. Over that time period, the Acting General Counsel issued three Reports outlining his views on the legality of employer social media policies, generally finding them to be unlawful when the policy used generalized language to prohibit employees from making critical...
read more

Another Facebook Case - Employee Claim of Invasion of Privacy This Time

Clifford Geiger
Clifford Geiger
08/17/2012
Litigation, Social Media
In Ehling v. Monmouth-Ocean Hospital Service Corp., the U.S. District Court for New Jersey permitted a former employee’s claim for invasion of privacy after a supervisor allegedly gained unauthorized access to her Facebook account to proceed for discovery. The plaintiff, a registered nurse and paramedic, alleged that her employer accessed private postings on her Facebook account in retaliation for her union activity.  A supervisor allegedly...
read more

Illinois Joins Maryland In Enacting Law Protecting Social Media Passwords

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
08/08/2012
Social Media
By Eric Paltell On August 1, 2012, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed legislation (H.B. 3782) barring employers from requiring employees and job applicants to disclose user names and passwords linked to social networking websites. The new law means that Maryland and Illinois now have more in common than just being two states with the 5th highest tax burden in the United States – they are also the only two states to enact legislation prohibiting...
read more

Maryland Bans Employer Access To Employee Social Media

Kollman & Saucier
Kollman & Saucier
06/26/2012
Social Media
By Clifford B. Geiger Maryland became the first state to pass a law prohibiting employers from asking job applicants and employees for their usernames and passwords to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.  This move comes on the heels of an Associated Press investigation that detailed how many employers, including the  Maryland Department of Corrections, were asking job candidates for access to social media accounts. The law...
read more
Email Updates

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.