Technology, communications and the Internet are at the core of most businesses today. The Law Offices of Peter M. LaSorsa, P.C. assists businesses on consulting, advising and helping business owners regarding issues related to these fields. I visited with the top business and legal executives of Google and Microsoft in 2006 and 2007 discussing the issues important to today's businesses.  I am also a former corporate attorney with Caterpillar Inc. where I concentrated on software agreements, the Internet, E-Commerce and Copyright issues.

I provide advice on the following:

Most employees today utilize the Internet daily for a variety of activities.  Most check their private email, and social networking sites.  It is important to have a policy in place that evenly enforces what employees are actually doing.  If one employee is disciplined but other employees doing the same activity are not, you may have a problem. 

It is important in today's global environment to get an attorney involved early in your business plans.

As an example of liability an employer may face regarding the discipline of an employee for his/her conduct while off work please consider the following.  Many employers view employees Myspace, Flickr, Facebook and other Social Networking Sites ("SNS") all which are considered Web 2.0 communications.  An employer may have liability for the improper regulation, discipline and treatment of employees in the form of an unfair labor practice charge under the National Labor Relations Act ("NLRA"), which doesn't just cover unionized employees but also non-union employees. 

Specifically, Section 7 of the NLRA states" Employees shall have the right to self-organizations, to bargain collectively through representativs of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection, and shall also have the right to refrain from any or all of such activities except to teh extent that such right may be affected by an agreement requiring membership in a labor organization as a condition of employment as authorized in Section 158(a)(3) of this title."

Basically, if an employee blogs, comments in an online forum or complains on his/her Social Networking Site about the company as far as wages, pay, hours worked or working conditions that activity will most likely be protected as long as the employee does not discuss trade secrets or post other confidential information about the company, violate a company policy on workplace violence or breach an agreement the employee may have with the company.  The employee must also not be reckless, say maliciously untrue statements or show disloyalty.  It is very important to carefully evaluate the employees off-duty conduct on the Internet before taking action against the employee and attorney Peter LaSorsa can help you with that.