The outcome of a recent Fair Work Australia case has proven just how carefully employers have to tread when it comes to dismissing employees for online offences.
In Glen Stutsel v Linfox Australia Pty Ltd [2011] FWA 8444 (19 December 2011) FWA found that an employee’s dismissal for making comments about his managers on his private Facebook page was unjustified.
The employee, a truck driver for Linfox, was dismissed last May for serious misconduct after he made several work-related comments on his private Facebook page that criticized his managers.
The business tool your tax adviser **************************
doesn’t want you to know about…
The employee claimed that he had set his Facebook page up with the maximum privacy restrictions and thought it was somewhere he could interact privately with a select group of friends.
Although FWA found that the comments made by the employee were “foolish”, it accepted the employee’s argument that they were not meant to be on public display, and were made on a private forum.
After considering the facts of the case, FWA determined that the employee’s termination was not for a valid reason and ordered that he be reinstated.
Why not having a social media policy is not good enough
In summarising the case, FWA also criticised the company for not having a detailed social media policy in place. FWA said that “in the current electronic age” it was “not sufficient” to not have a social media policy in place.
If you don’t have a social media policy in place in your business yet, you should get one together one as soon as possible. You should also ensure that employees are aware of and understand the policies.
Need a few pointers on how to get started? Keep an eye out for next Wednesday’s Bulletin.
I’ll go over 5 things you should make sure you include in your workplace social media policy.
