Michael Schmidt, vice chair of Cozen O'Connor's Labor & Employment department, discusses on SHRM.org the recent firing of a Yelp employee after she criticized her CEO in a blog post. Legal experts acknowledge that it can be tricky determining whether federal law protects a worker from being fired if she publicly criticizes her employer. However, whether such speech is protected also can depend on if it amounted to an individual’s lone complaint or a collective complaint on behalf of other employees, said Michael. “Key to the analysis will be the nature and content of the speech or conduct, as well as whether the employee engaged in the speech or conduct alone as an individual gripe or otherwise sought to get co-workers involved in collective expression."

To read the article, click here.