The 11 sacked officials are among 116 DWP employees to have faced disciplinary action for blogging and social networking since January 2009, according to figures revealed under the Freedom of Information Act. Of these 116, 34 were given a final written warning, 35 received a written warning and 36 were reprimanded orally for their use of social media.
The DWP said use of Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites was "completely restricted" for most of its workers. The only employees allowed to use the sites are those who have a "genuine requirement for access". The department's official Twitter account is run by the DWP press office.
A DWP spokeswoman said: "The DWP has clear guidelines for staff on the use of the internet and social media. The vast majority of staff abide by these rules. For the small minority who don't, we have strict disciplinary measures in place, ranging from a warning to dismissal."
Comment
In terms of managing your risk as an employee its a good idea to do the following:
Really it just comes down to the point that if you wouldt say it in work or to a customer, dont do it on a platform where the text is permenant, easily searchable and you cant control how it is disseminated by others.
You may wonder, what if I've done something, is it too late to fix it? Well not necessarily. A good demonstration of why this is important comes from the case of Stephens v Halfords Plc ET/1700796/10, where an employee who was being consulted over a workplace reorganisation put up a Facebook page entitled “Halfords workers against working 3 out of 4 weekends”. When he read the company’s social networking policy two days later and realised his page might be in breach of the policy, he immediately took it down. His dismissal was held to be unfair as he had a clean disciplinary record, had removed the page as soon as he realised it was in breach of the company’s policy and he had apologised.
There are many benefits to using social media if it is engaged with responsibly and many firsm pollicies do recognise this, however for employees its worth taking that bit of time to look into the policy and what you can and cant do. A good example of this is offered by Preece v JD Wetherspoons Plc ET2104806/10 the employer was found to have acted reasonably in dismissing a manager for posting derogatory comments about a customer on Facebook during her shift. She thought only a handful of people would see them but in fact hundreds did, including the daughter of the abusive customer. Wetherspoons relied on its clear social networking policy which prohibited disparaging customers on Facebook, the availability of an employee hotline and that the remarks took place during an ongoing conversation rather than in the heat of the moment. Significantly the Tribunal held that even if the comments were made in the employee’s own time Wetherspoons may still have been able to act in the same way.
The DWP said use of Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites was "completely restricted" for most of its workers. The only employees allowed to use the sites are those who have a "genuine requirement for access". The department's official Twitter account is run by the DWP press office.
A DWP spokeswoman said: "The DWP has clear guidelines for staff on the use of the internet and social media. The vast majority of staff abide by these rules. For the small minority who don't, we have strict disciplinary measures in place, ranging from a warning to dismissal."
Comment
In terms of managing your risk as an employee its a good idea to do the following:
- Familiarise yourself with the business’s social media policy;
- Regularly review the content of their personal social media channels;
- Ensure all privacy settings are up to date;
- Understand where the line between professional ends and private begins;
- Logout of social media platforms when not at the computer; and
- Think before uploading content as you may not be able to control who reads it.
Really it just comes down to the point that if you wouldt say it in work or to a customer, dont do it on a platform where the text is permenant, easily searchable and you cant control how it is disseminated by others.
You may wonder, what if I've done something, is it too late to fix it? Well not necessarily. A good demonstration of why this is important comes from the case of Stephens v Halfords Plc ET/1700796/10, where an employee who was being consulted over a workplace reorganisation put up a Facebook page entitled “Halfords workers against working 3 out of 4 weekends”. When he read the company’s social networking policy two days later and realised his page might be in breach of the policy, he immediately took it down. His dismissal was held to be unfair as he had a clean disciplinary record, had removed the page as soon as he realised it was in breach of the company’s policy and he had apologised.
There are many benefits to using social media if it is engaged with responsibly and many firsm pollicies do recognise this, however for employees its worth taking that bit of time to look into the policy and what you can and cant do. A good example of this is offered by Preece v JD Wetherspoons Plc ET2104806/10 the employer was found to have acted reasonably in dismissing a manager for posting derogatory comments about a customer on Facebook during her shift. She thought only a handful of people would see them but in fact hundreds did, including the daughter of the abusive customer. Wetherspoons relied on its clear social networking policy which prohibited disparaging customers on Facebook, the availability of an employee hotline and that the remarks took place during an ongoing conversation rather than in the heat of the moment. Significantly the Tribunal held that even if the comments were made in the employee’s own time Wetherspoons may still have been able to act in the same way.
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