Lafe Solomon, the acting general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), has issued another memorandum citing examples of companies' social media policies that violate employee rights under Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

Section 7 rights give employees the green light to discuss conditions of employment, including wages, with one another and with third parties. In general, if a social media policy or rule tends to put a "chill," or even outright ban, on such discussions, the NLRB will view it as unlawful.

Of this company rule, "Don’t release confidential guest, team member or company information. . . ," Solomon wrote:

We found this section of the handbook to be unlawful. Its instruction that employees not 'release confidential guest, team member or company information' would reasonably be interpreted as prohibiting employees from discussing and disclosing information regarding their own conditions of employment, as well as the conditions of employment of employees other than themselves–activities that are clearly protected by Section 7. The Board has long recognized that employees have a right to discuss wages and conditions of employment with third parties as well as each other….

“I hope that this report, with its specific examples of various employer policies and rules, will provide additional guidance in this area,” Solomon said in releasing the memo.

Solomon released similar documents in January 2012 and August 2011. You can download the most recent one, dated May 30, 2012, here.