Protected Concerted Activity is a legal term used in labor policy to define employee protection against employer retaliation in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

. It is a legal principle under the subject of the

freedom of association Freedom of association encompasses both an individual's right to join or leave groups voluntarily, the right of the group to take collective action to pursue the interests of its members, and the right of an association to accept or decline memb ...

. The term defines the activities workers may partake in without fear of employer retaliation. In countries where there is relatively robust employee dismissal protection, the protection of protected concerted activity is less of a distinct legal issue. In liberal market societies like the United States, where it is comparatively easy for an employer to fire an employee, the issue of protected concerted activity has become an important employment protection. The

National Labor Relations Act The National Labor Relations Act of 1935, also known as the Wagner Act, is a foundational statute of United States labor law that guarantees the right of private sector employees to organize into trade unions, engage in collective bargaining, an ...

, the main labor policy governing labor relations in the United States, defines concerted activity in Section 7.

Section 7 - Employees shall have the right to self-organization, to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection...

Generally speaking, there is protected concerted activity when two or more employees act together to improve their terms and conditions of employment, although it is (on rare occasions) possible for conduct to be so egregious that it becomes unprotected. Employees have a right to advocate in this manner even where there is no union involved. At times, protected concerted activity has extended to individual employees; for example, when an employee speaks individually to his or her employer on behalf of him or herself and one or more co-workers about improving workplace conditions. An individual employee who seeks to enforce a collective bargaining agreement will generally be deemed to be engaged in concerted activity. On the other hand, an employee who acts as a "whistleblower" may or may not be engaging in concerted activity; if the complaint is entirely individual and the employee has not discussed it with co-workers, it is unlikely to be protected by the National Labor Relations Act (though it may well be protected under some other public policy). The Act does not limit the manner, time, or place in which employees can engage in concerted activity. Consequently, in recent years, the General Counsel of the

National Labor Relations Board The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent agency of the federal government of the United States with responsibilities for enforcing U.S. labor law in relation to collective bargaining and unfair labor practices. Under the Natio ...

has often taken the position that employee conversations about common workplace issues which make use of social media such as

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

and

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

are protected against retaliation.Se
Report of the Acting General Counsel Concerning Social Media Cases
, OM 12-31 (Jan. 24, 2012).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Protected Concerted Activity Labour law Freedom of association