Seyfarth Synopsis: Even if bad Glassdoor reviews have you feeling like you need to fight back, employers should stay out of the ring, and instead implement social media policies that clearly define prohibited behavior and disclosures, while spelling out the consequences for violations. Employers must not retaliate against employees for their lawful out-of-office behavior.
People are used to sharing everything
Continue Reading Raging Bull: Getting Beat Up On Glassdoor?
Seyfarth Synopsis: With the availability of new vehicle GPS devices and smart phone tracking applications, employers need to be mindful of employee privacy rights when using location technologies in the workplace.
It Doesn’t Take A Magellan To Map Routes Anymore
Employers now have available the technology that concerned parents of wayward teenagers have often wished for. Thanks to technological advances,
Continue Reading There’s An App For That: Considerations in Employee GPS Monitoring
You’re reading a blog post, and thus need no primer on the prevalence of social media. But you may not be aware of the pitfalls facing employers that use, monitor, or implement policies regarding social media.
Employers can face liability for a wide variety of social media-related practices. For example, if you thought employers generally could prohibit employees from picking
Continue Reading To Follow or Not To Follow … (Social Media in the Workplace—Part 1 of 2)
Yesterday, the National Labor Relations Board issued its much-anticipated decision in Browning-Ferris Industries of California, 362 NLRB No. 186 (August 27, 2015). By a 3-2 vote, the Board announced a new standard to determine whether multiple entities are “joint employers” of a single workforce. The Board will now inquire whether there is a common-law employment relationship with the employees
Continue Reading NLRB’s New “Joint Employer” Standard: Seismic Impact for California Employers?
By Nick Geannacopulos and Emily Barker
You have likely noticed that business interactions and the way people communicate professionally have declined in formality over recent years. The “Friday Casual” day has become the casual week. Formal letters have turned into short emails. Even slang has devolved to emoticons and language unheard of in the workplace a decade ago. Navigating through
Continue Reading Managing the Two P’s: Profanity and Politics in the Workplace
By Jill Porcaro and Andrew Crane
As a well-intentioned employer, you know it is best to promptly investigate employee claims of workplace harassment and other employee misconduct. Due to the obvious sensitive nature of these types of investigations, you implement a policy prohibiting your employees from discussing the investigation with anyone other than the investigator. You believe that your employees will feel more comfortable disclosing truthful information to the investigator knowing their confidences are assured. Great policy, right?
In Banner Health System d/b/a Banner Estrella Medical Center, 358 NLRB No. 93 (July 30, 2012), an employer had a policy of prohibiting its employees who made complaints from discussing the matter with their coworkers while the investigation was ongoing. The Board held that this rule violated the NLRA because an employer must justify a prohibition by showing a “legitimate business justification that outweighs employees’ Section 7 rights.”
Well then, I’ll just nicely suggest to my employees not discuss the details of any investigation. That ought to solve the problem, right?
Continue Reading A Rock and a Hard Place: Keeping a Lid On Internal Workplace Investigations