NLRB: Social Media Policy is a Mandatory Subject of Bargaining - COTW #152

The latest Case of the Week comes in the form of an NLRB advice memorandum regarding Giant Food LLC. While these NLRB social media memos have lost some of their mystique as more have been released, they still include some interesting tidbits.

One interesting aspect of this memo is its application to the NLRA's collective bargaining requirements:

Initially, we note that the social media guidelines are a mandatory subject of bargaining that the Employer was required to bargain over before implementation. The Board has long held that work rules that could be grounds for discipline are mandatory subjects of bargaining. Further, as the social media guidelines impose a new independent basis for discipline, there was a "material, substantial and significant" impact upon bargaining unit employees' terms and conditions of employment. Thus, the Employer was required to bargain over the policy.

Readers will no doubt be *shocked* to learn that the NLRB also found some substantive problems with the policy itself.

HT: Reed Smith Employment Law Watch via Eric Meyer on Twitter.