Copy article

Staff, politics and social media - employer Q&A

ended 22. November 2024

With tensions running high around countless events, from the wars in Ukraine and Gaza to the summer riots and the recent Trump election win, we're putting together an article for a national newspaper on how companies should deal with staff who are being particularly vocal or outspoken on social media in relation to sensitive subjects like these — especially if their post on X or other social media channels are being reported back to their employers. Clearly each incident is different but, as a rule of thumb, what should employers do if they are told, or discover, their staff are taking potentially extreme positions on social media? Can they do anything at all if it is a personal social media account and not directly related to the employer? Have you had to deal with situations like this and what did you recommend? Any practical tips on what companies can do if a staff member is publishing views on social media that may not reflect well on them, or they are uncomfortable with, send them across. We'll be publishing this story tomorrow morning so deadline is 08:00.

1 responses from the Newspage community

Copy all

Copy

Peter Lawrence
HR Consultant / MD at Peter Lawrence
We were recently contacted by one of our clients as an employee was a pro-Palestinian protester who had been getting a lot of attention on social media and even featured in a major national newspaper. The employer was initially neutral and had no issues with the employee's involvement in the protests she attended but it became a problem when social media linked her to the company and the protests were of a racist and offensive nature. Our advice to the client was that the incidents needed to be investigated. They were subsequently deemed sufficiently serious to justify dismissal as the employee's conduct was in breach of their Social Media Policy and Equality Policy and some specific clauses in her Employee Contract. We also advised the employer to seek crisis management advice from a PR agency, at the very least a formal statement about the incident and reasons for the employee's dismissal. We are seeing more requests from companies along these lines given current global events.