NLRB Action in the Age of Facebook

On Oct. 27, 2010, Region 34 of the National Labor Relations Board in Hartford, CT, issued an administrative complaint against American Medical Response of Connecticut, an ambulance operator, alleging that it violated both Section 8(a)(1) and Section 8(a)(3) of the National Labor Relations Act by terminating an employee and for maintaining a policy in its handbook that trammels employees' rights under the NLRA. Usually, the mere allegation that a company has violated the NLRA ' irrespective of the gravity of the claims ' is not news. But this partciular complaint received nationwide media attention ' print, television, and online ' because the allegations centered on an employee's use of Facebook, and her employer's alleged reliance on her Facebook postings in terminating her employment.