Blog Counsel
Catherine E. Reuben, a labour and employment lawyer at Robinson & Cole, on the Law Of The Blog panel here had a really interesting list of Dos & Don’ts for employers and employees peering into the fun happening in the Blogosphere and thinking about making the leap.
With Catherine’s gracious permission, here’s the list in full – transcribed from her original notes:
Tips for Employee Bloggers
Don’ts
- Don’t do personal blogging on company time or company equipment.
- Don’t talk about your employer on your personal blog.
- Don’t fire off stuff on your blog without being prepared for your employer or your potential employer to see it.
- Don’t sign form “confidentiality” or “intellectual property” agreements without reading them very carefully and consulting with counsel. Many such agreements are way over-broad, and you may have more bargaining power than you think.
Dos
- Do read your company confidentiality, computer equipment and Internet use policies carefully
- If your job is analysis or creation of content – get legal advice with respect to ownership and control of the works you create on your own time. Chances are, you signed a document saying that all works you create during the term of your employment belong to your employer – and that would include your blog.
- Do learn about legal ways to express yourself in a protected manner. For example, while First Amendment protections often do not apply to private employers, there are lots of other laws out there to protect employee speech. For example, the National Labor Relations Act protects employees who in engage in “concerted activity for mutual benefit”. So, if a non-supervisory employee says: “I think my pay stinks”, they aren’t protected, but if he or she says: “we think our pay stinks” they may well be. Statements made in the context of union organizing likewise receive greater protection.
Tips for Employers
Dos
- Do have a confidentiality agreement that has a reasonable definition of what you consider confidential. If your agreement is over broad, for example if you define as confidential things that are on your website, the court may not enforce your agreement.
- Do have a policy on use of company computer equipment and the Internet and enforce it consistently.
- Do have clear guidelines regarding what employees can do on personal websites or blogs. For example – can they link to your company’s website?
- Do have reasonable intellectual property agreements that preserve your right to own and control works created by analysts, journalists, or other creative employees on your payroll.
Don’ts
- Don’t access your employees’ personal blogs under false pretences. E.g. logging in as if you are their buddy or using convoluted technology to get around protections they build in.
- Don’t take any employment action as a result of a blog without consulting with counsel. Many companies have an over-inflated sense of the value of the “employment at will” doctrine. There are hundreds of exceptions to employment at will that could come into play in the blogging context, for example:
o State privacy laws;
o Anti-retaliation and whistle-blower protection statutes;
o NLRA;
o Old-fashioned discrimination, for example: if you do not treat employees consistently.
====
Interesting...
