Employers should expect more scrutiny of policies that address employee use of social media following the settlement of a closely watched case that involved an employee who was fired following the posting of negative remarks about her boss on Facebook.

American Medical Response of Connecticut, Inc., reached a settlement  with the National Labor Relations Board related to a complaint filed by the board's Hartford regional office last October involving the firing of employee Dawnmarie Souza for posting negative comments about a supervisor on her personal Facebook page.

Under the settlement, AMR agreed to revise its “Blogging and Internet Posting Policy”, which the NLRB alleged improperly restricted employees' rights to discuss wages, hours and working conditions with fellow employees and others on the Internet. The policy language at issue prohibited employees “from making disparaging, discriminatory, or defamatory comments when discussing the company or the employee's superiors, coworkers and/or competitors,” according to the complaint. The NLRB also alleged that Souza's firing violated federal labor law because she was engaged in protected activity when she posted the comments and that Souza was illegally denied union representation during an investigatory interview.

“With the increase in the use of social media, we can anticipate more charges filed by employees and unions with respect to companies' Internet policies,” Lafe Solomon, NLRB Acting General Counsel, said in a statement. Noting that federal labor law protects the rights of employees to discuss the terms and conditions of work with fellow employees, including on Facebook, Solomon said, “Employers cannot punish employees for taking part in such conversations, and they cannot prohibit such activity through overly broad rules in employee handbooks.”

AMR did not respond to a request for comment.

Under the settlement, the company agreed to revise its rules to ensure that they don't improperly restrict employees from discussing their wages, hours and working conditions with co-workers and others while not at work, and agreed not discipline or discharge employees for engaging in such discussions. The company also promised that employee requests for union representation won't be denied in the future and that employees won't be threatened with discipline for requesting union representation, according to the NLRB press release. The allegations involving the employee's discharge were resolved through a separate, private agreement between the employee and the company.

“This is just the first case of this kind,” Katrina Campbell, vice president of Corporate Training and Education at Global Compliance. “I fully expect the board will be looking at other employers,” she says. “The NRLB can and will review employer policies, even without action against an employee.”

It's not just the NLRB employers have to concerned about, says Campbell. She expects more complaints of this kind from all the federal employment agencies, such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Labor, and possibly state agencies. “The message we're getting from the federal labor agencies and courts is that they're going to look at [employee communications on] social media sites the same way they look at discussions around the water cooler,” she says.

The settlement is also a good reminder for employers to look at policies on social media. “Many companies may have hastily drafted a policy just to have something in place, and their policy language may be overly broad,” says Campbell. “Employers ought make sure they're carving out behavior that's considered protected activity.” For instance, she notes, “Employers may think it's okay to have a policy that says employees can't talk about their employer on Facebook, but they can't restrict employees so broadly.”

Further, Campbell reminds that the National Labor Relations Act applies even in non-union environments. “Employers have to be mindful of that even in situations where they think disciplining an employee is appropriate,” she says.

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