Employee Risks in an Electronic Age

The seemingly unstoppable rise in social networking sites has left many more employees exposed to potential disciplinary investigation than was the case before the advent of the electronic age. It is all too easy to click the send button without fully reflecting on the implications of what is being sent and the repercussions can be extremely serious for employees if they make comments about their employer that are not justified. There is also the danger that such comments are sent to an unintended recipient with even more scope for disciplinary proceedings to follow.

Although an Employment Tribunal has recently found that an employee making derogatory comments about her workplace on Facebook for which she was dismissed was unfair, it is important to understand that the comments were of a relatively minor nature and in this particular instance there was nothing to suggest the employer's relationship with a key client had been harmed or jeopardised as a result.

In addition, the employee had an otherwise exemplary employment record and there were other mitigating circumstances.

For employers there is a useful lesson to be learned since although there is a temptation to have a knee-jerk reaction, it is incumbant upon them to investigate matters involving social media throughly and to attempt to assess the risk of harm caused by any potential derogatory comments.

Pengillys have prepared a helpful checklist highlighting the risks for both a business and its employees which would be a useful starting point before considering what further steps to take, preferably in conjunction with expert legal advice.  Please follow this link.