National Labor Relations Board announces settlement in social media case

February 7, 2011
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Settlement reached in case involving discharge for Facebook comments

A settlement has been reached in a case involving the discharge of a Connecticut ambulance service
employee for posting negative comments about a supervisor on her Facebook page.
The NLRB’s Hartford regional office issued a complaint against American Medical Response of
Connecticut, Inc., on October 27, 2010, alleging that the discharge violated federal labor law
because the employee was engaged in protected activity when she posted the comments about her
supervisor, and responded to further comments from her co-workers. Under the National Labor
Relations Act, employees may discuss the terms and conditions of their employment with coworkers
and others.
The NLRB complaint also alleged that the company maintained overly-broad rules in its employee
handbook regarding blogging, Internet posting, and communications between employees, and that it
had illegally denied union representation to the employee during an investigatory interview shortly
before the employee posted the negative comments on her Facebook page.
Under the terms of the settlement approved today by Hartford Regional Director Jonathan
Kreisberg, the company agreed to revise its overly-broad rules to ensure that they do not improperly
restrict employees from discussing their wages, hours and working conditions with co-workers and
others while not at work, and that they would not discipline or discharge employees for engaging in
such discussions.
The company also promised that employee requests for union representation will not be denied in
the future and that employees will not be threatened with discipline for requesting union
representation. The allegations involving the employee’s discharge were resolved through a
separate, private agreement between the employee and the company.
The National Labor Relations Board is an independent federal agency vested with the authority to
safeguard employees’ rights to organize and to determine whether to have a union as their collective
bargaining representative, and to prevent and remedy unfair labor practices committed by private
sector employers and unions.
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News Release
National Labor Relations Board
Office of the General Counsel

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