Employees sometimes take to Facebook and Twitter to discuss work-related matters — and employers usually don’t like that. But according to federal regulators, employers don’t have a say in the matter. In fact, regulators are passing down orders indicating employers have to scale back on policies that limit what their workers can say online.

“The National Labor Relations Board says workers have a right to discuss work conditions freely and without fear of retribution, whether the discussion takes place at the office or on Facebook,” reports The New York Times.

“In addition to ordering the reinstatement of various workers fired for their posts on social networks, the agency has pushed companies nationwide, including giants like General Motors, Target and Costco, to rewrite their social media rules,” the article continues.

This comes at a time when lawmakers and others are wrestling with what is and is not appropriate discussion on social networks, in addition to what should be considered punishable.

What can be done about online bullying? What about students at a university who discuss drug use on a social networking platform? Or police officers and teachers who post about what they’re doing in their free time?

The labor board’s ruling applies to most all private sector jobs, telling companies that it’s illegal to put in place broad social media policies, “if those policies discourage workers from exercising their right to communicate with one another with the aim of improving wages, benefits or working conditions,” explains NYT.

However, the agency also found that it is “permissible for employers to act against a lone worker ranting on the Internet.”