The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and Dawnmarie Souza have settled the lawsuit over Souza’s firing for negative comments she made about her employer on Facebook. Souza was terminated by American Medical Response of Connecticut, Inc., an ambulance company, after posting derogatory comments about her supervisor on her Facebook page, which then drew comments from Souza’s coworkers and prompted additional comments by Souza. The NLRB brought an unfair labor practice complaint (No. 34-CA-12576-001) against the company on behalf of Souza. This was the NLRB’s first complaint against an employer for taking action against a worker for social media postings made from a personal computer.
In addition to protecting employees’ rights to form unions, the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) prohibits employers from disciplining employees for discussing working conditions, regardless of whether or not the employees are members of a labor union.
As part of the settlement, the ambulance company agreed to change its “overly broad rules” to ensure that it did not illegally restrict speech outside of work. American Medical specifically agreed to change its blogging and Internet use policies so it no longer prohibits employees from talking about work online or depicting the company “in any way” without permission. According to the NLRB, these policies interfered with the workers’ right to discuss wages, hours and working conditions with co-workers. Souza posted comments using her personal computer, at home and on her own time, and the NLRB considered such remarks to be protected activity under labor law.
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