DENVER – Late last week, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) issued a confirmation that Chipotle Mexican Grill’s social media policy violated the law, Social Media Daily reports. The Mexican fast-causal chain had forbidden employees from “posting incomplete, confidential, or inaccurate information and making disparaging, false, or misleading statements” on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites.

In March, a decision by NLRB Judge Susan Flynn found Chipotle in violation of labor laws when it fired James Kennedy, who worked at a Pennsylvania location, over a tweet Kennedy posted in response to a customer’s thanks for free food: “@ChipotleTweets, nothing is free, only cheap #labor. Crew members only make $8.50hr how much is that steak bowl really?”

When a manager informed Kennedy that the tweet violated company policy, he removed it. But Chipotle fired him several weeks later over a petition about employees not receiving required breaks.

Flynn ruled that the firing was in violation of labor law because it came after his tweet and petition, which are protected speech under the National Labor Relations Act. The company was ordered by the judge to rehire Kennedy and pay his lost wages.

However, this latest ruling was reversed on part of Flynn’s decision: Chipotle wasn’t in violation for asking Kennedy to delete particularly offensive tweets (some of which weren’t related to labor issues), but that the company’s overall social media policy that forbid posting was illegal. Chipotle must now post notices at each restaurant to let workers know the social media policy is no longer in effect.

Several years ago, the NLRB reminded employers that particular speech made on social media by workers is protected against prohibition or retaliation, which includes specific workplace complaints about benefits, conditions, hours or wages, among other things.