Unfair Labor Practices

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This week’s assignment presents two cases studies involving employers who may or may not have committed unfair labor practices under the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA). The two case studies, “Discharged for Facebook Comments” and “The Disputed Safety Bonus”, present two different employment scenarios where the behavioral actions of the employee lead the employer to terminate their employment (Holley, Jennings, & Wolters, 2012). In both cases, the employees filed unfair labor practice lawsuits against their former employers. This paper will summarize the two cases and seek to answer the questions asked at the end of each case study.
In the first case study, “Discharged for Facebook Comments”, the employer, an ambulance service, received a customer complaint regarding one of its unionized emergency medical technicians (Holley, Jennings, & Wolters, 2012). Table 1 summarizes the pertinent events occurring in this particular case study.
Table 1
Party Involved
Event
Supervisor Requests employee to file written response to complaint
Employee Requests union representation prior to filing a written response
Supervisor Denies employee’s request for union representation
Employee Posts negative comments on social media site regarding the supervisor
Co-Workers Reply to employee’s comments, offering support
Company Becomes aware of employee’s negative social media comments
Company Suspends employee pending investigation
Company Terminates employee’s employment, citing violation of company policy regarding blogging internet postings
Union Files unfair labor charge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on behalf of the employee
Note. Adapted from “The labor relations process,” 10th edition by William H. Holley, Jr., Kenneth M. ...

... middle of paper ...

...d every employer has a duty to protect his interests and those of his employees by remaining vigilant to how the laws are applied to changing technologies.

Works Cited

Binger, R. A. (2011, August 30). Employee Social Media Griping: Can An Employer Terminate Employees Because of Their Social Media Posts Without Violating Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act? Retrieved November 9, 2013, from http://www.dannamckitrick.com/articles/2011/08/employee-social-media-griping-can-an-employer-terminate-employees-because-of-their-social-media-posts-without-violating-section-8a1-of-the-national-labor-relations-act/
Holley, W. H., Jennings, K. M., & Wolters, R. S. (2012). The labor relations process. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.
National Labor Relations Act | NLRB. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nlrb.gov/resources/national-labor-relations-act

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