Most employers prefer that employees not discuss their wages with people they know. They definitely prefer that employees not complain about their pay on Twitter. So when a Chipotle employee at a Haverford, Pa., restaurant did exactly that, the company asked him to delete the posts. Eventually, the company fired the worker. However, earlier this year, an administrative law judge with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ordered Chipotle to rehire the employee because the company’s social media policy violated the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
In January 2015, the employee tweeted several complaints about working on snow days. He also used Twitter to express his dissatisfaction about hourly wages ($8.50). Soon after, a supervisor told the crew member that the tweets violated the company’s social media policy, which prohibited employees from making disparaging and false statements about Chipotle. The employee took the posts down, but was fired several weeks later for organizing a petition claiming that workers weren’t getting their required breaks.