Alice K. Jump Featured in HR Brew Article on Legal Risks of Disciplining Employees for Social Media Activity

RPJ’s Alice K. Jump was recently featured in an article from HR Brew examining how employers should approach disciplining workers for social media activity in today’s polarized climate. Ms. Jump observed that while many employees mistakenly believe their online speech is fully shielded by the First Amendment, private employers (unlike the government) generally retain broad discretion to take disciplinary action, subject only to certain limitations under discrimination laws or state statutes. “People have the mistaken impression that everything is protected by the First Amendment, but employers are not government,” Ms. Jump explains. She adds that most organizations already maintain social media policies barring content that violates anti-discrimination or harassment standards, suggesting that employers proactively remind their workforces of these policies as a preventative safeguard.

To minimize both legal exposure and reputational risk, Ms. Jump emphasized the importance of enforcing such policies evenhandedly. Employers who discipline workers for inflammatory posts about Charlie Kirk, for example, but fail to take similar action against equally provocative statements from opposing viewpoints, may invite discrimination claims. As she cautioned: “If they [employers] go ballistic and fire people for talking about Kirk…and then, they don’t take the same action for something that shows another point of view, they’re giving rise to discrimination claims. Applying it [social media policy] consistently across all political spectrums and all types of activism will reduce the risk to the employer.”

Read the full article here.

This article is intended as a general discussion of these issues only and is not to be considered legal advice or relied upon. For more information, please contact RPJ Partner Alice K. Jump who counsels clients on litigation, alternative dispute resolution and business counseling, with particular emphasis on representing clients in the financial services and real estate industries as well as educational and non-profit institutions. Ms. Jump is admitted to practice law in New York and before the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.