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Employees use of social media platforms

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 09:46

It has been reported that there are currently around 4.5 million Facebook users in South Africa, a number that has steadily grown from 3.8 million in 2005. During the past couple of years we have seen a number of employees being dismissed as a result of defamatory information that was published on Facebook.

In the recent case, both the operations manager and bookkeeper were dismissed for bringing the company’s name into disrepute by publishing derogatory comments about the owner on Facebook. In the online posts employees had stated that family members of the employer were incompetent, problems arose after the owners children joined the company and that new managers caused office drama. The employees claimed their right to privacy was breached by the employer accessing their profiles on Facebook. They also argued that the comments that they had made did not identify any person or organisation and therefore could not have damaged the reputation of the employer.

In terms of the Regulation and Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act 70 of 2002, any person may intercept any communication if he or she is party to the communication, unless such communication is intercepted by such person for purposes of committing an offence. According to the Commissioner, the internet is public domain and the dismissed employees had not utilised the security measures to block access to their profiles, therefore any person could have accessed the information that they published.

What emerges from the above is that a dismissal in similar circumstances will be regarded as being fair, provided that the employer follows the correct procedures and the evidence used against the employees has not been illegally obtained. It is imperative that employees have policies in place regarding the monitoring and interception of communication in the workplace. It would be advisable that in addition to any electronic communications policy, employers implement social media policies as well.

Jonathan Goldberg, CEO of Global Business Solutions. Should you wish to get hold of us, please contact us at execoffice@globalbusiness.co.za