Can you be sacked for 'slagging off' your boss on Facebook?
18 September 2009
Source: WorkplaceInfo
Have you got the right to ‘slag off’ about your boss on Facebook or other social networks without fearing the loss of your job?
The NSW Industrial Relations Commission will make a decision about that next week in a case that will have major consequences for workers everywhere.
Six NSW prison officers have gone to the IRC to ask for a ruling that comments they made on Facebook about Corrective Services Commissioner, Ron Woodham, are a private matter.
Bullying and harassment
The six have been threatened with the sack over the remarks, which Woodham says are ‘bullying’ and ‘harassment’.
The remarks were made in the context of privatisation plans for the Parklea and Cessnock prisons.
Under the heading ‘Suggestions to help Big Ron save a few clams’, the group suggested the sacking of senior officials, whom they claimed added little value and revealed areas of wastage within the Department of Corrective Services.
When the officers received letters threatening them with dismissal over the matter, they turned to their union, the Public Service Association (PSA).
Private comments
The PSA has taken the matter to the IRC, and wants a ruling that the remarks were a private matter.
It also wants the award changed so that workers are exempt from dismissal for things they said or did in out-of-work hours.
They want included in the award the words:
‘An employee shall not be the subject of any disciplinary action by reason of conduct that occurs outside working hours and which is intended by the employee to be private in nature.’
PSA senior industrial officer said an employee’s right to ‘blow off steam’ — be it in the home or online — had never fully been tested before.
Asked if the move would have a flow-on effect to other awards, he said:
‘Absolutely. My word it will.’
Industrial war
The PSA also warned the IRC that tensions were so high among prison guards that dismissing the six workers could spark an industrial war.
‘I’m concerned that in the broader context of the Way Forward (prison reform) process the dismissal of the employees may lead to industrial action, particularly as a number of the employees played prominent roles in the PSA’s opposition to a number of aspects of the Way Forward process,’ Mr Little said in an affidavit to the commission.
‘We are concerned about what people say but what we’re saying is if they are saying it after hours in the privacy of their homes, well that’s really where it should be left,’ Little said.
‘None of these comments were put directly to the people who were a subject of the comments.’
Not misconduct
‘Really, we are trying to see how it should constitute misconduct.’
‘What people do in their own time is their own business and shouldn’t be subject to misconduct.’
‘Talking on Facebook is the same as people talking in the pub letting off steam but the department is trying to say it’s like going on ABC News at night.’
‘We say it’s somewhere in between the two, but much closer to the lower end of the spectrum.’
The PSA is also concerned that Woodham is both the complainant in the matter and also the person who would ultimately make the decisions whether the officers are sacked.
The union says such a decision should be made by an independent body.
Insulting comments
Little said it was ‘astonishing’ Woodham had reacted so sensitively to the comments, which were posted online to a select audience, and which had never been sent to him directly.
‘He’s a person who has never baulked in the past at making quite derogatory and insulting comments about members [such as] saying officers at Parramatta jail drove fancy cars because they were abusing overtime,’ he said.
‘It’s a bit rich when no one put these [Facebook] comments to him, he engaged someone to search for the comments on Facebook.’
‘They are chasing employees into their homes and on their computers.’
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