NLRB 'Unfriends' Employer Over Facebook 'Like'

On August 25, the National Labor Relations Board found in Three D, LLC, d/b/a Triple Play Sports Bar and Grille v. Sanzone, Case No. 34-CA-012915, and Three D, LLC, d/b/a Triple Play Sports Bar and Grille v. Spinella, Case No. 34-CA-012926, that an employer had violated federal labor law by terminating an employee who had "liked" a former co-worker's negative comment about the employer posted on Facebook. The Board also ruled that the employer violated the National Labor Relations Act ("NLRA" or the "Act") by firing another employee for posting an expletive-laced comment about the employer in response to the former co-worker's comment, and it found that the employer's "Internet/Blogging" policy banning "inappropriate discussions" regarding the company unlawfully chilled employees' exercise of their right to engage in protected, concerted activity under the Act.

The employer ("Triple Play") is a sports bar in located in Connecticut. In January 2011, Jillian Sanzone, a waitress/bartender, was one of several employees who discovered that they owed more in state income taxes than they had expected. Sanzone spoke with her co-workers about the issue at work, and employees complained to Triple Play, which scheduled a staff meeting in February to discuss the employees' concerns. In the meantime, a former Triple Pay employee, with whom Sanzone was a "friend" on Facebook, posted the following "status update" to her Facebook page:

Maybe someone should do the owners of Triple Play a favor and buy it from them. They can't even do the tax paperwork correctly!!! Now I OWE money...Wtf!!!!

A number of the former employee's friends - including current Triple Play employees and customers - made comments about this post. Sanzone posted her own comment regarding the original post: "I owe too. Such an *ssh*le." Vincent Spinella, a cook at Triple Play who was also Facebook friends with the former employee, while not posting a comment, selected the "Like" option under the former employee's original post.

One of Triple Play's two co-owners found out about Sanzone's and Spinella's Facebook activity from his sister, who was Facebook friends with the former employee that made the original post as well. When Sanzone reported to work two days after posting her comment, Triple Play terminated her employment because, in the opinion of its owners, her Facebook comment showed a lack of loyalty. When Spinella reported to work the next day, Triple Play's owners confronted him...