In a thoroughly reasoned and illustrative opinion, one federal court magistrate judge recently dismissed the claims of a group of individuals who alleged they were not hired because a potential employer used LinkedIn’s “Reference Search” feature to obtain background information. Sweet v. LinkedIn Corporation, NDCA, No. 5:14-cv-04531, April 14, 2015.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act

By a two-to-one vote, a three-member panel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) upheld an administrative law judge’s findings that an employer unlawfully discharged an employee because of social media comments – including strong obscenities – that were personally critical of a company manager. Pier Sixty, LLC and Hernan Perez, et al, NLRB Cases

A few months ago, the National Labor Relations Board (the Board) determined that an employee’s profanity-laced tirade did not lose the protection of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), because the tirade followed the employer’s statement that if the employee didn’t like his job, he could quit.

Recently, however, the Board found that a Facebook

Recent court decisions related to employees’ online postings have centered on whether disciplinary decisions regarding those postings may violate the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The NLRA protects certain employee “concerted activities” aimed at discussing or improving working conditions, and precludes interference with such communications, including online messages. However, individuals also have brought other legal

Last month, employers received a little more help from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in formulating social media policies that pass muster under scrutiny from the Board. On October 19, 2012, the Associate General Counsel (AGC) for the NLRB’s Division of Advice provided a useful and well organized opinion in response to a request

Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) protects the right of employees to engage in “concerted activities” with each other for the purpose of collective bargaining or in efforts to improve working conditions and terms of employment. These concerted activities can be done in person, or by other methods of communication, including electronic

[With thanks to Hera Arsen, J.D., Ph.D., in our Client Services group – her more detailed explanation of this case can be found on the firm’s website at www.ogletreedeakins.com.]

The U.S. Supreme Court has held that a city police department’s search of an employee/police officer’s text messages was reasonable, and did not violate the