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A little bird told me...

06 February 2015 / Michael Salter , Chris Bryden
Issue: 7639 / Categories: Features , Employment
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Michael Salter & Chris Bryden discuss the challenges of managing employees’ social media activity

We have written before about the dangers of social media usage by employees and the tensions in the law that arise as a result (see “Beware of the web”, 163 NLJ 7569, pp 9-10). We reviewed a number of cases which had been considered by the courts in which employees had been dismissed after misuse of social media, such as Smith v Trafford Housing Association [2012] EWHC 3221, [2013] IRLR 86 the Northern Irish case of Teggart v TeleTech UK Limited [2012] NIIT 00704_11IT and Preece v JD Wetherspoon plc ET/2104806/10. We concluded that this was an area in which guidance was required, and proposed a number of principles. These included that postings on social media sites in free time from personal equipment should not be covered automatically by a reasonable expectation of privacy, particularly where a complaint had been made; but that this did not justify a trawl of social media for disciplinary

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Birketts—trainee cohort

Birketts—trainee cohort

Firm welcomes new cohort of 29 trainee solicitors for 2025

Keoghs—four appointments

Keoghs—four appointments

Four partner hires expand legal expertise in Scotland and Northern Ireland

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Brabners—Ben Lamb

Real estate team in Yorkshire welcomes new partner

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