Reference no: EM132386591

George's, Fred's, and Sue's employer was a chain pizza parlor located in a shopping mall near their university, the State University of New York at Albany.

The local manager decided that rumors of sexual harassment of customers were so concerning that each employee would be required to disclose their user name and password for all social media accounts. George, Fred and Sue all did this.

On looking into their posts, the manager found nothing in any social media accounts indicating sexual harassment was a concern. However, George had shared several jokes that were clearly racist. Fred had told friends the pizza was over-priced at the restaurant and the manager was a "jerk." Sue was trying to get a better paid job at a local competitor.

The manager fired all three employees.

Was that legal? If one of the three had refused to share their social media information could they have been legally fired?