Usually, an employee who tells a co-worker that his boss is an “asshole” can expect to be collecting unemployment compensation benefits shortly thereafter. But, depending upon the context and the medium, such a comment, even made by a non-union employee, may be “protected concerted activity,” and therefore entitled to legal protection, after the National Labor Relations Board’s recent decision in Triple Play Sports Bar and Grille, 361 NLRB No. 31 (Aug. 22, 2014).
Facebook Discussion of Withholding
Triple Play Sports Bar and Grille is a sports bar in Watertown, Conn. Jillian Sanzone worked for Triple Play as a waitress and Vincent Spinella was a cook. In January 2011, Sanzone and at least one other co-worker discovered that she owed more income taxes than she had expected, which she blamed on Triple Play’s owners. Sanzone spoke about this with co-workers and the bar’s owners, who planned a meeting with their payroll provider to discuss the issue. Before the meeting, Sanzone and Spinella, along with a former co-worker and a mutual “friend” (who was a customer of the bar’s), took to Facebook to complain about the bar’s owners and to preview the meeting.
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