The number of discrimination charges filed against employers has increased by more than 20 percent since 2007. The No.1 charge is employer retaliation, followed by race, sex, disability, and age.
Ballard Spahr attorneys Babe Blattner-Thompson and Karen Clemes discussed how retaliation claims could be triggered by the use of social media at the firm’s Fall Employment Law Seminar in Salt Lake City.
“When it comes to social media, ‘it’s complicated,’ which is also an option for relationship status on Facebook (along with married or single), said Ms. Clemes, who helped draft the social media policy for the LDS Church. “Often, different standards apply when an employee’s connection to the employer is disclosed, as opposed to when it is not.”
Ms. Clemes said that, in the public arena, it is important to have a policy about what employees can and cannot say, particularly if they identify themselves as connected to a company in their public profile.