• The New York Times, Tuesday, November 9, 2010 12:23 PM

The National Labor Relations Board claims that a company illegally fired an employee after criticizing her supervisor via Facebook. Labor officials and lawyers tell The New York Times that this is a ground-breaking case involving workers and social media. "This is the first case in which the labor board has stepped in to argue that workers' criticisms of their bosses or companies on a social networking site are generally a protected activity and that employers would be violating the law by punishing workers for such statements," The Times reports.

Last week, the labor relations board said it filed a complaint against an ambulance service, American Medical Response, for firing an emergency medical technician for, among other things, violating a policy that bars employees from depicting the company "in any way" on Facebook. Lafe Solomon, the board's acting general counsel, tells The Times: "This is a fairly straightforward case under the National Labor Relations Act -- whether it takes place on Facebook or at the water cooler, it was employees talking jointly about working conditions, in this case about their supervisor, and they have a right to do that."

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