Victor "Buddy" Amato, the chief of the Monmouth County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, has been forced to step down for allegedly sending out racist and homophobic text messages to members of his staff. His situation is the latest example of how New Jersey workers can lose their jobs for sending out texts of social media posts their boss doesn't like or agree with.

Why some texts can put your job in jeopardy. (JupiterImages, ThinkStock)
Why some texts can put your job in jeopardy. (JupiterImages, ThinkStock)
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"Your freedom of speech comes from the Constitution, but the Constitution only applies to the government, it doesn't apply to private corporations,"said Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute. "Legally, you don't have any right to freedom of speech where your boss is concerned,"

Maltby, whose organization is based in Princeton, said if your boss wants to fire you because he doesn't like something you post on your Facebook page, there's nothing you can do about it New Jersey.

"A handful of states have passed laws that do protect workers to a greater extent -- one of them is New York. In New York, your boss can't fire you because he doesn't like your opinions, in New Jersey we tried to get a law passed to say the same thing, but it didn't get passed," he said.

Maltby said Congress has passed laws that say you can't fire somebody for their race, religion or for being homosexual, however "Congress has never passed a law that says your boss can't fire you because he doesn't like your opinions."

He also said there have been cases of people who lost their jobs because an employer didn't like a bumper sticker for a particular political candidate, or because they went to the wrong political rally.

Maltby said he's been working for 25 years to give people freedom of speech at work, unless they're doing something that hurts the company. However, unless Congress or lawmakers in a particular state becomes motivated or pressured to change things, employees will still be vulnerable to losing their jobs for expressing themselves in certain ways.

"We're all partially to blame for this. Elected representatives respond to what their constituents tell them," he said. "If you don't demand this it's not going to happen. If you don't like it, write your state senator and tell them to do something about it."

Besides New York, lawmakers in North Dakota, Colorado, Montana and California have also passed laws expanding the rights of workers.

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