RPJ Partner Nicole Page Featured in CNBC Work Article “For Protest-Minded Workers, Employment Law and Free Speech Are Not Clearly on Your Side”

As protest and political speech continue to enter the workplace, employees are questioning what, if any, legal rights they possess to express and respond to politics at work. The recent CNBC article featuring Page explores this question, where she importantly notes that “It’s not considered illegal for an employer to say, ‘You’re representing us; we think that behavior reflects badly on us and so you’re fired.” This is also something to consider when posting on public-facing social media.

While many individuals believe they have free speech rights at work, this is actually not the case for private-sector workers. According to Page, “broadly speaking, the federal government is not allowed to limit your ability to speak, but the same is not true for private employers.” There are certain state and union specific protections related to political speech as well as protections related to speaking out about one’s unlawful treatment by employers, but there are no widespread or all-encompassing protections for the political speech of employees.

Read more of what Page has to say on these topics here.