Facebook Firing Suit Settled

A settlement has been reached in the case of a Connecticut worker who was fired for criticizing her boss on Facebook, according to The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

The case centered on a complaint issued last year by the NLRB against American Medical Response of Connecticut Inc. alleging that the ambulance firm broke federal labor laws when it fired an employee for posting and responding to comments about her boss on the social networking site.

The National Labor Relations Act permits employees to talk about the terms and conditions of their employment with coworkers and others.

The NLRB also said the company maintained overly broad rules in its employee handbook regarding blogging, Internet posting and communications between employees, and that American Medical Response 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 settlement, the company agreed to relax its rules about employees discussing their wages, hours and working conditions, and said it would not discipline or discharge employees for engaging in online 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.

“Those that were watching the case were hoping to form some clarity on the issue, and with the settlement we are not getting it,” said Daniel Schwartz, a Hartford, Conn.-area employment lawyer who was not involved with the case. “This will keep recurring until either the legislature or the courts chime in” on whether employees can be punished for off-duty comments made on Facebook or other social networking Web sites, he said.