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New Legal Service to Review Employee's Use of Social and Corporate Networking- 09/03/2011
West Midlands law firm FBC Manby Bowdler LLP has launched a new service for organisations worried about the use of social and corporate networking sites by employees.
Alasdair Hobbs, Partner in FBC Manby Bowdler’s Employment Department firm, says that in the wake of increasing numbers of inappropriate on-line postings potentially damaging organisations’ reputation or threatening to put them in court, or in front of an employment tribunal, it is time for employers to ensure that they have policies on the use of social media in place.
FBC Manby Bowdler is offering a free review of organisations’ current e-mail and internet-use policies and will then advise how they can be extended to include both corporate social networking and personal use of social networking sites.
Mr Hobbs continues: “With access to the internet both from work and from home, contents of on-line postings (whether written, video or otherwise) by employees are difficult to police, and could be potentially discriminatory, or amount to bullying or harassment.
“Employers are vicariously liable for the acts of their employee, including abuse and misuse of social media. Acts carried out by an employee can be treated as having been done by the employer, even if employer had no knowledge of them.
“However an employer will not be liable if it can show that it took such steps as were reasonably practicable to prevent its employee from making the discriminatory posting.
“Of course where such postings are brought to their attention, employers should be prepared to act and take disciplinary action where necessary. This is much easier, if there is a policy on use of social and corporate network sites already in place.”
According to Mr Hobbs, such a policy should:
• Be clear about the kind of information that can be communicated using corporate social networking. Businesses should be very cautious about discussing confidential matters using unsecured methods of communication. Not only could this help competitors, but the organisation could find itself in breach of data protection legislation.
• Ensure staff record any useful contacts acquired through corporate social networking by having clear systems in place. This will go some way to ensuring that any activity benefits the business in the long term, even if the employee leaves.
• Be clear about what is considered to be legitimate corporate social networking, so that the business does not get into a situation where staff think it is OK to chat to their friends during work time.
• Ensure staff are aware they are representing the business in any corporate social networking. Any defamatory statements made by employees about the company should be treated as a disciplinary offence, and this should be clearly communicated in the policy document.
“Should employees misuse social media, then the existence and consistent enforcement of such policies can reduce the risk of a finding of liability against the employer,” concludes Mr Hobbs.
FBC Manby Bowdler is offering a free consultation with organisations to assess whether or not their existing e-mail and internet-use policies are up to date, and to advise whether they need to extend it to cover on-line networking. Further information on this is available by contacting Alasdair Hobbs at FBC Manby Bowdler by email: a.hobbs@fbcmb.co.uk, by phone 01902 702062 or via fbcmb.co.uk