This article was written by: Nina Macauley
Fair Work ruling serves as warning to Aussie Facebook users
Australians must take careful note of the implications of their actions on the internet, with social networking sites such as Facebook proving to be an unsafe place to slag off the workplace.
The country’s national workplace relations tribunal, Fair Work Australia, has recently ruled in favour of a manager who sacked an employee over an expletive-ridden Facebook post that was written outside of office hours and in front of their computer at home.
Damian O’Keefe, a computer technician from Townsville, was sacked from his position at a Townsville electrical goods business, after his manager viewed the post as a direct threat to the company’s operations manager.
When questioned about the identity of the person who was the target of the threats, Mr O’Keefe confirmed that the manager was the subject of the abusive posts.
The following day after the posts were made, boss, Troy Williams, informed O’Keefe that he could no longer work with the firm as violent threats were made. During the hearing, the employers argued that there was a direct connection between the posts made on Facebook and his work.
Mr O’Keefe claimed that he was angered at the fact he would not receive commissions owed to him, and the comments were not intended to be read by anyone at his workplace. He said the privacy settings on his Facebook account were enabled only a select number of his 70 friends could read the posts.
Deputy President of the Fair Work tribunal, Deirdre Swan said that common sense would dictate that a worker could not publish insulting and threatening colleagues about another employee.
“The fact that the comments were made on the applicant’s home computer, out of work hours, does not make any difference,” she said.
She ruled that the Mr O’Keefe had acted in an inappropriate manner and dismissed the case.
Image Courtesy of Andrew Feinb..
