An organization that fired five employees who griped about their jobs on Facebook has been ordered to rehire them and give them back pay, reports Courtney Rubin at Inc. A National Labor Relations Board judge ruled that federal law protects employees' right to complain about working conditions when they're off the clock.

The organization, Hispanics United of Buffalo, is a non-profit that delivers social services to low-income people. One worker started a conversation about morale on Facebook on a Saturday morning, and four others soon chimed in, complaining about workload, staffing and working conditions. They were all fired within days. 

The administrative law judge hearing the case, Judge Arthur J. Amchan, ruled that they had been fired illegally. In addition to hiring them back and issuing back pay, the organization is ordered to put up a notice letting employees know their rights under the National Labor Relations Act.

As Rubin notes, this case is a first in two ways: It is the first time the NLRB heard a social media-related case that didn't focus on the organization's social media policy; it is also the first case involving social media in a workplace that isn't unionized. 

For more:
- see Courtney Rubin's article at Inc.

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