Can we dismiss an employee for posting damaging content about our organisation on Facebook?
It depends… However, organisations must have a clear Social Media policy, setting out what is acceptable in relation to the use of email, internet and social media sites. If the employee has not been told for example, that posting comments on Facebook is unacceptable, then it is unlikely to be fair to dismiss. Restricting access to a post to ‘friends’ only is not always a defence, because any post can be passed on to others by a friend. From recent case law, it appears that for a dismissal to be fair, there must be some element of bringing the organisation into disrepute.
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