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welcome back to david packard show joining me is josh idle thing
contributing writer covering labor for so long and for indeed these times also
josh titles than on twitter the uh... article i was reading josh is great in
the talks about this question of whether you can be fired for what you post on
face book and it seems that the answer is a wild while there may be one legal
answer it seems to be kind of dependent on
where you work and who your employer's does it not
yes it does
thanks for having me back dated him
the short answer is
it's complicated
in general
in the first point image in the state article which most people don't realize
is all things being equal
the presumption is
your boss can do whatever they want in terms of what they punish you for how
they punishes living in an will employment country and so
unless
you're in a state that has more protections here covered by a union
contract to your government employees
presumptively
your boss provided for almost anything there's a couple exceptions
that's why
the group of workers in at three different workplaces past
file will be precedent-setting cases
they'll be heard by the labor board which will decide how wide
one of those exceptions s
so all things being equal and you take the example of a worker who was fired
for having a john kerry bumper sticker on the card two thousand
that some people
the exception is you're alluding to
is concerted activity
under the labor relations act corrine team thirties companies can't punish
used for
protected concerted activity meaning
workers banding together
n doing something together to improve their working conditions
now people associate that was
going on strike you're wearing a union about it
you know i have to be in a union of trying to get a union to be doing
concerted activity
instead
there's a series of tests the labor board in the courts have come up with
all of which are somewhat subjective to bury subject
and what we're going to find out from the national labor relations board over
the coming months
is how we're gonna fly those tests distasteful where a lot of conversations
between work so happening now be stepping into water cooler at a bar
so let's not go up a few of the obvious things that will probably come up for a
lot of people number one whenever you hear something like this to hear people
talk about the first amendment but the first amendment doesn't apply here
because that's really about
the government's right to abridge free speech it doesn't do is visited all
relevant to this discussion
exactly like he's edge relevant culturally delving into the water values
are at work in a country where we stayed
people should have the right to speak freely and especially
when you're not backing that work
ted whatever kinds of decisions you have to put up with eight hours a day at work
we imagine that once you go home
you can say into what you want but you can't
the first amendment doesn't protect you
from the government could
flow it protects you from the government that doesn't protect you from
the many government of your employer
cracking down on your right to speak freely even if the speech happens
outside of work
near the time having is of course the fins united we now know that
corporations are people man
and that um... of course money is speech so could of private importer
legally fire you simply for finding out
from uh... we know fundrace dot order about your political donations
yes they could
mangal
absolutely what are the only exceptions are in the civil rights act early to
laws
or the labor relations protection for concerted activity but firing you for
unless it's he say your religion laurier
have greater protections under state law
generally you can be fired for whatever kind of activity here doing outside of
the workplace and people are there examples where people get fired because
they had a threesome outside of work or they drink alcohol outside of work
or a their involvement with an organization that the company doesn't
like and it was interesting to me
when i interviewed the labor policy director at the chamber of commerce
about this mass well why should companies have this power
he defended and he said well management needs to be able to
make sure that the right person is in the right job and that includes
temperament
and the example he gave his alone greatest what if someone's doing
racist things outside of work should the company really have to protect them back
to continue to pay them at work
and so
business groups in the united states conservatives in the united states
somalis
like the idea that the company has absolute discretion
to choose who should or should it be a little in the workplace even based on
things that people do outside of work
arthur and let's talk specifically about face book a little bit i mean the
logistics of face book are that depending on your part of what your
profile settings are right
people you are not friends with may not be able to see what you posted therefore
the question becomes
if the company receives word of what an employee has posted a face book
third-hand in other words from a third party who is friends with the employee
but can't independently verify it what's the situation they are right i mean
screenshots can be doctored third-party reports are better notoriously other
reliable what what happens then
so there is no requirement of due process in most work places in the u_s_
the coming barry rover rumor
and that includes a rumor about something you could start a spoke when
they see me or not
workers have been fired in the past over things they road private letters
there is no requirement of the company at truth or why they're fired
the only restrictions on the line
by the couple reasons whitcomb who's campfire when one of those is what's
called protected concerted activity that's that's protected by labor
relations act
and we're gonna see over the next few months
how the labor board decides that applies distasteful to social media
alright excellent stuff even people in charge idol fan contributing writer
covering labor for so long and for in these times you can follow him on
twitter
and josh idle thing that the i_d_ p l us elan's
great stuff drafted but the good work
engineering
all right we'll take a break we'll be back up on a more after this