The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon has released a report detailing social media cases his office has reviewed. The report — a a follow up to the first report concerning social media in the workplace, which was released August 18,2011 — details decisions in 14 cases reviewed by Solomon’s office.

Those 14 cases include:

• five cases in which the employer’s social media policy were found to be overly broad;
• one case in which the employer’s social media policy was found to be lawful;
• one case in which the employer’s social media policy was found to lawful after it was revised;
• one case in which an employee’s discharge was upheld because the employee’s post wasn’t work-related;
• and several cases in which employee terminations were found to be unlawful because the termination decisions came from unlawful policies.

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The report notes that “these cases are extremely fact-specific,” but that two “main” points from the first report are reaffirmed in this new report:

• Employer policies should not be so sweeping that they prohibit the kinds of activity protected by federal labor law, such as the discussion of wages or working conditions among employees.
• An employee’s comments on social media are generally not protected if they are mere gripes not made in relation to group activity among employees.

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