On August 15th the National Labor Relations Board
made an advice memo available regarding two of CVS Health’s social media
policies. These policies require all
employees to disclose certain personal information, but have fallen out of
favor. The pharmacy unlawfully
interfered with employee rights under Section 7 of the NLRA. This states that any employee has the right
to engage in concerted activities for their benefit, as well as the right to
discuss both wages and working conditions.
At CVS employees were required to identify using their real
names on all social media platforms, which creates a significant burden on
their Section 7 rights. Employees were
also instructed not to disclose “employee information” over social media. The NLRA has stated that there is no
legitimate interest in stopping employees from sharing contacts or discussing
wages. Other than that the counsel found
that all other social media policies within the company are lawful.
So how should your policy look? First you need to make sure that the policies
you have in place are not too broad or too restrictive. This could interfere with the workers right
to complain about their employer and discuss terms of their employment with
each other.
In December of 2017 the NLRB got rid of their “reasonably
construe” standard and replaced it with a “facially neutral” handbook
policy. This would mean it is not worded
to intentionally interfere with any workers Section 7 rights.
–
The nature and extent of the potential impacts
on NLRA rights.
–
The employer’s legitimate justifications
associated with the rule.
Employees do not have any constitutional right to free
speech at work. However employers still
need to be aware of their ever changing federal and state laws that do protect
speech in the workplace. If you have any
questions regarding your companies social media policies do not hesitate to
reach out to us. You can get a hold of
us at (610)-296-8550 or info@convergehrsolutions.com.
Read
the full article here: http://bit.ly/2ktQ6uP
0 Comments