The Employment Law & HR Podcast

An update on Social Media considerations for Employers

In this weeks' episode I bring you an update on social media considerations for employers. I have been contacted numerous times in the last couple of weeks with questions about social media issues at work by both employers and employees and therefore I thought that it would be a good time to recap on some of the cases in this area and summarise key points for employers to note.

In this episode I will cover:

  • Cases where the employee was fairly dismissed for social media posts;
  • Cases where the Employment Tribunal decided that the employee had been unfairly dismissed for social media posts;
  • A case where the employer was permitted to rely on Facebook posts and a YouTube video to fairly dismiss an employee;
  • Best practice training for new staff using an example from a case against Apple Retail;
  • What you should include in your Social Media Policy;
  • Considerations with social media relating to Discrimination, Recruitment, Reputation & Confidential Information.

Action Points

  1. Review your social media policy, if you have one, if not get one!;
  2. Consider how important social media reputation is to your business & how you are protecting your business from your employees;
  3. Consider providing training or specific information to employees at the induction stage about the use of social media;
  4. Ensure you make it clear in your recruitment policy and/or process how you will use social media and online searches about candidates;
  5. I can help with all of the points at 1-4 so why not give me a call and let an expert take care of it for you 023 8098 2006 or 01983 897003.

 Useful Links & Case References

British Waterways Board v Smith (2015)

Game Retail v Laws (2014) 

Gill v SAS Grand Services UK Limited

Whitham v Club 24 Ltd t/a Ventura (2011)

Stephens v Halfords PLC (2011)

Crisp v Apple Retail

Direct download: episode_72.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:23am EDT

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