Beware of What You Post on Facebook

Imagine if you report sick and avail sick leave but put up pictures of yourself having a whale of a time in a party, you could well end up losing your job if your employer gets to see it. This is what happened to a man in Australia, who took two sick days during the New Year, was fired from his barman job after a photo of him partying on the said days was spotted by his employer on Facebook. Antony Dekort, who was working at Johns River Tavern, south of Port Macquarie, even tried to show a doctor's certificate that he had obtained a few days later, but it did not help his case.

Dekort went to Fair Work Australia to appeal against his dismissal but the tribunal found he had failed "in the face of clear evidence" to put any case to meet the claim of misleading conduct or to explain the inconsistency of his actions.

There have been at least five cases before Fair Work Australia where employees have been sacked after something they wrote or did was recorded on Facebook.

There are likely to be many more dismissals that went unchallenged and never reached the tribunal.

In a recent judgment, the Fair Work Australia commissioner Michelle Bissett said complaints by workers about their employers on social networking sites were becoming more common, and warned employees that postings on Facebook were public comment.

"'A Facebook posting, while initially undertaken outside working hours, does not stop once work recommences," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted her as saying.

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"It would be foolish of employees to think they may say as they wish on their Facebook page with total immunity from any consequences," she stated.

Source-ANI