A custodian was fired for posting two negative comments on his personal Facebook page regarding occurrences at his place of employment.
http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/courier_times/courier_times_news_details/article/28/2009/november/20/custodian-fired-for-facebook-comments-1.html
As the article states, the union will not defend the custodian as he was not a tenured employee however I do believe that we have not heard the last of this case. I suspect a lawsuit will arise.
Is a Facebook page or any other social networking site page private information and do individuals utilizing these sites have the right to privacy?
Again we explore privacy rights and issues and this time, as they relate to the workplace.
If the custodian had signed a contract specifying that he not publish nor verbally demean in any way his employer, I can see a possible case arising. However, there comes into play a case of ethics. Albeit, the custodian was not an agent of the school district and was solely an employee but if the postings were performed during work hours as the article states, there is definite reason for the firing as personal phone calls, or surfing the net or any other activity performed solely for a personal nature during work hours is in fact a form of theft and/or deception. The time for the job to be performed is being used for personal affairs as the person is still getting paid for job performance.
I will be interested to read if any other articles appear out of this one and if a lawsuit gets instituted.
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I suppose it would have to come down to the issue of whether the janitor signed a contract expresses stating he would not "bad mouth" his employer or if he was committing the act during working hours. If the janitor didn't sign such a contract and was posting the comments during off hours, then two questions arise. 1) Is it lawful to fire someone for comments made about his/her employer during off hours? 2) Is an employer required to keep employed a worker who is continually posting negative comments about them?
ReplyDeleteI don't think the custodian should get fired because he was voicing his opinion on an internet website. That should be private information that shouldn't determine his job.
ReplyDeleteJust to play devil's advocate here, the school contends that he was fired not for the content of what was posted but for the fact that he was posting to his Facebook page via his cellphone during working hours. I think that completely changes the scenario. However, I think that most people would agree that the school simply found a loophole through which to legally terminate the custodian due to the content of his Facebook comments.
ReplyDeleteOn a completely different note, is the custodian right that the school has an obligation to notify students, parents and teachers if people have the swine flu? If so, perhaps he can make the argument that he blew the whistle on improper behavior by the school district and mount a defense that way.
I think when schools, jobs, etc. are going to Facebook to look into people's opinions, things are getting out of hand. What's the point of the privacy setting on there if my manager can go look at my page and see what I'm up to? And if he doesn't like it, I lose my job? I can understand if someone had reasonable doubt to look on there and I was a danger to myself or others, but really if I was just voicing my opinion than that's pushing it.
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