It's not uncommon for differing political views to cause angry arguments or even physical altercations at the workplace. These political disagreements tend to heat up in a presidential election year.
"We've got the 2024 election right around the corner. The talk is going to pick up again. You're going to get arguments in the workplace," Kelly Dobbs Bunting, an attorney with Greenberg Traurig in Philadelphia, told attendees during a concurrent session at the SHRM Annual Conference & Expo 2023 on June 12. "All of this is becoming far more relevant because employees speak up more than they used to speak up."
As an example, Dobbs Bunting recalled widely circulated photos of a Virginia cyclist giving the middle finger to then-President Donald Trump's motorcade in 2017. "She wasn't at work. She was riding her bike, and she was expressing her political view," Dobbs Bunting said, but she was fired from her job at a government contractor. She sued for wrongful termination but lost in court, partly because Virginia's at-will employment laws don't cover free speech.
HR professionals need to understand federal and state laws that govern when an employer can or can't discipline or fire someone for political diatribes that might be offensive, profane, harassing or discriminatory.
Under the Hatch Act and Civil Service Reform Act, public employees have some free speech protections "if they are not engaged in their official duty," Dobbs Bunting said. Unlike public employees, "private...
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