One such cautionary tale is that of a 30-year-old former
senior director of corporate communications at a large U.S.
communications corporation who tweeted “jokes” about
the indignities of travelling on her journey from New York
to South Africa. After she tweeted a few particularly heinous
“jokes” including, “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just
kidding. I’m white,” she shut off her phone for the duration
of her flight. When she arrived in South Africa, she turned
on her phone to find that her Twitter account had exploded
with other Twitter users expressing their outrage with her socalled
jokes. The retweets took off and eventually made their
way onto the devices of her employers. Her employment was
terminated thereafter.
The PIPE MILL with FAST SERVICE
Producing:
24”-192” OD
.312”-2.00” Wall
Lengths up to 120 ft.
Straight Seam - DSAW
20 ft. Lengths in Stock
800-821-3475
Fax: 815-964-0045
PipeSales@ArntzenCorp.com
Shipping Nationwide and Canada
TM RAMMING QUALITY
In 2009, a Canada Post clerk with 31 years’ experience was
terminated for speaking poorly about management and the
company on Facebook. The woman made more than 30 postings
containing derogatory and mocking statements about
her supervisors and Canada Post. In some of the posts, the
woman suggested she had a voodoo doll of one of her supervisors
and if she had not been drinking, she “would take her
out on the driveway and run over her.” The employee’s discharge
was upheld at arbitration.
In 2011, a former on-air host for Rogers Sportsnet was
terminated after he publicly tweeted his disapproval of gay
marriage. As an on-air host, the former employee was one
of the public faces of Rogers Sportsnet. The employee filed
a complaint to The Canadian Human Rights Commission
against Rogers Sportsnet in 2013. The complaint was
dismissed.
In 2010, a pilot with 3.5 years of service with Wasaya
Airways posted a comment on his Facebook page that was
disrespectful to First Nations people. Neither the comment
nor his page directly identified his employer. However, at
arbitration, it was determined that the post was so offensive
that it undermined the employment relationship and had the
potential to harm Wasaya Airways’ reputation, a company
owned by several First Nations that predominately provides
services to First Nations communities. Due to mitigating factors,
the pilot was forced to resign instead of being dismissed.
The list of Canadian employees terminated for inappropriate
off-duty conduct on social media goes on.
LEGAL
Once something
private becomes public,
employees are at risk of
discipline and recourse
from employers.
FIZKES / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
68 Q3 2017 www.pilingcanada.ca
/www.pilingcanada.ca
link
/www.pilingcanada.ca
link
/www.pilingcanada.ca
link
