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...
By Jill Kahn Marshall In a recent interview for WorkLife, RPJ Partner Jill Kahn Marshall discusses the evolving landscape of employee social media use and how as more workers express dissatisfaction with their jobs online, companies are increasingly adopting social media policies to manage this behavior. “[O]ne of the objectives...
RPJ Partner Deena R. Merlen was interviewed by Forbes for an article published recently, titled "All Hands Memo: Why Activism At Work Could Get You Fired." As noted in the article, “Forbes spoke with legal experts about the protections employees have – and don’t have – when it comes to...
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...
RPJ Partners Marshall and Merlen recently published an article titled “Do Managers Have a Right to Fire Workers for Divisive Social Media Posts?” in the business magazine, Fast Company. Their article explores the extent to which employees’ speech on social media is (or is not) protected, including differences between public...
Earlier this month, a New York state law took effect intended to restrict the extent to which employees’ personal social media accounts may be shared with current or prospective employers. The law, Assembly Bill (A) 00836/Senate Bill (S) 02518A, amends the State’s Labor Law to prohibit an employer from requesting...
RPJ Partners Deena Merlen and Jill Kahn Marshall recently published an article for the New York Law Journal entitled “When Political Discourse Leads to Dismissal”. This article explores how political speech on public social media platforms can lead to termination by one’s employer, and how such termination can lead to...
Conventional wisdom used to dictate that employers should refrain from taking political positions, and employees' personal political views had no place in the workplace. The widespread use of social media has changed this calculus today. While technically not part of an employee's workplace behavior, employees' personal social media accounts are...
Social media companies have historically been shielded from all liability connected with the content appearing on their platforms as a result of Section 230 of The Communications Decency Act. [1] The inability to hold social media companies, like Meta and TikTok, legally accountable for content has led to increasing frustration...
With technology and social media changing the game for advertising at an ever increasing pace, companies and marketers are trying to stay ahead of the curve while avoiding a wide range of legal pitfalls involving rights clearance, advertising to children, substantiation and other vital issues. On Tuesday, October 2, RPJ...