There are a multitude of decided cases concerning employees dismissed for exhibiting unattractive beliefs at work, but rather fewer about those sacked for the mere holding of them. Particularly in view of this summer’s riots, that makes the EAT’s decision this month in Thomas -v- Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust a timely and … Continue Reading
Summer is here, and while school may be out, New York employment laws are in full swing! A reminder to New York employers of new laws that have gone into effect in 2024.… Continue Reading
Following recent differing decisions of the Fair Work Commission (FWC) it seems that Australian employers must still tread a fine and uncertain line in determining whether employee misconduct on social media is a valid reason for dismissal. In the recent case of Stephen Campbell v Qube Ports Pty Ltd t/a Qube Ports & Bulk in … Continue Reading
In Jo Faragher’s article for the CIPD’s People Management magazine September 2016 “Employee councils and social media are opening up new routes for staff to get their voices heard. But is anyone listening?” she raises a number of interesting questions about the methods and effectiveness of employee feedback The article suggests that the combination of … Continue Reading
Do you know your Charmanders from your Bulbasaurs? Did you have a preferred method for catching Snorlax? Was your favourite move Hydro Pump? If you have any idea what I am talking about, excellent. If not, please be assured that I am reminiscing about the nineties/noughties phenomenon that was Pokémon and do not require the … Continue Reading
Taking a stand against jilted ex-lovers, Western Australia has joined the UK and USA to fight the war on ‘revenge porn’. Revenge porn occurs when the (either actually or imminently) ex-partner posts nude or intimate pictures or videos online without consent. In the absence of appropriate laws, perpetrators have often escaped liability. In response, countries … Continue Reading
‘Tis the season of goodwill. Well, for most of us at least… Over in Oxfordshire, a pub has just dismissed one of its chefs. We don’t really know much about why, or whether it was reasonable. One might venture that the dismissal of a chef just 10 days before Christmas is unlikely to be unfounded, … Continue Reading
The trouble with social media is that a tough day in the office followed by a couple of glasses of something restorative can lead some people to over-share, just a little. Such was the fate of US TV reporter Shea Allen, who was fired from Alabama’s WAAY-TV last week after her blog: “Confessions of a … Continue Reading
There are two thoughts about the recent furore surrounding young Paris Brown’s appointment, Twitter fiasco and embarrassing resignation as Youth Crime Commissioner. The first is a lesson about the recruitment process. Stating the obvious, it pays to ensure there is a thorough assessment and selection of candidates for vacancies, particularly for high profile jobs. One … Continue Reading
Fame at last! Whincup, D. appears in the bibliography of a recent ACAS Research Paper into “Workplaces and Social Networking – the implications for employment relation”, hooray!. Aside obviously from its reference to me, the Paper is primarily notable for the details it provides of a survey conducted by MyJobGroup. One thousand individual respondents were … Continue Reading
The U.S. Congress followed Maryland’s lead and introduced bills in both houses which would prohibit employers from requiring prospective or current employees to provide their employer with passwords to their social media accounts such as Facebook and Twitter. The bills make it an illegal invasion of the employee’s privacy. The Senate version of the law … Continue Reading
As reported earlier this year, labor and employment lawyers and human resource personnel look to new decisions to help shed light on one of the fastest growing issues for employers—managing employee use of social media. Earlier this month, the NLRB Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon issued a report concerning nine recent cases that the agency … Continue Reading
In the current era where social media infiltrates the workplace and a recent case settled where the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) felt employees who criticized their supervisors on Facebook were engaged in protected activity, employers now have to think twice before reprimanding employees because of their “tweets.” (For more information on recent case, see … Continue Reading
