Workers fight for the right to criticise employer on Facebook

Five NSW employees will appear before the NSW Industrial Relations Commission seeking a landmark right – the right to criticise their employer on Facebook.

The IRC dispute is the first Australian case to test employer relations on social networking sites. At its heart is the question of whether comments made on the social networking site are public or private.

The five prison officers were threatened with the sack after posting comments on a Facebook group about New South Wales Corrective Services Commissioner Ron Woodham.

The Corrective Services Department is accusing the officers of “unauthorised public comment”.

But the IRC will hear an application from the Public Service Association of New South Wales, which is asking the Commission to hear an unfair dismissal application for the workers.

“This is a landmark case because our concern that talking on Facebook constitutes misconduct has never been tested in this way. We think this is a very important case with huge ramifications,” PSA industrial officer Stewart Little told SmartCompany.

“We are seeking an interlocutory relief that will stop the department from dismissing them, if indeed that’s what they are intending to do, which we believe it is.”

The PSA also intends to seek an award change that will prevent employees from dismissal over activities undertaken during out-of-work hours, including commenting on social networks, an activity Little compares to “talking in the pub”.

“Our view is that using this media after hours is not inappropriate. The victim never had the comments brought to him, he sought them out.”

But Industrial relations lawyer Peter Vitale says postings made on social networking systems can be reasonably viewed as public comment.

“There’s no difference between doing this and writing a letter to a newspaper, or going on TV to say the same things. What you put on these websites is publically available.”

“But the case shows how the question of what behaviour occurs in the workplace is becoming increasingly blurred.”