Feds saying employees have right to criticize

Employer free speech rights got a boost last year when the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against a Connecticut paramedic company who fired an employee for making negative comments about her boss on Facebook, wrote Christopher Danzig for Above the Law, March 31, 2011.

That was only one of a number of instances that mark a growing trend toward limiting policies restricting employee comments online. Company policies often ban negative comments about the company, management and fellow employees, but in recent rulings and advisories federal regulators have stated that the policies are illegal, writes Stephen Greenhouse, The New York Times, January 22, 2013.

Public employees are not riding the same trend given the 2006 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, Garcetti v. Caballos, that public employees did not enjoy full freedom of speech on the job, First Amendment Coalition.