Public Grievance | Dealing with employee complaints on social media

Social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are part and parcel of an employee’s business and personal life. So it’s not surprising that these are increasingly being used to air grievances about employers and fellow colleagues.

If a disgruntled or former employee chooses to post negative material about you as an employer online or about one of their colleagues, it has the potential to cause serious damage to your reputation at the click of a button.

Publication of the material in question may also amount to a breach of your organisation’s equal opportunities policy, bullying and harassment policy, dignity at work policy, email and internet use policy or policy on use of social media and/or policy on social networking.

Policy on the use of social media and social networking.

Whether or not any action you take against an employee is an appropriate course of action will depend on the specific circumstances of each case. However an employment tribunal will in the first instance take into account: