I've been monitoring closely, various articles and views expressed by members of the public in relation to the tweets posted by SBS Sports Presenter Scott McIntyre on ANZAC Day.
To recap, McIntyre posted several tweets throughout the day including:
"Remembering the summary execution, widespread rape and theft committed by these 'brave' Anzacs in Egypt, Palestine and Japan"
"Innocent children, on the way to school, murdered. Their shadows seared into the concrete of Hiroshima"
And the end result? His employment was terminated on grounds that such tweets were a breach of the company's code of conduct as well as its social media policy.
In my view, given the vast reach of social media, now more so than ever, as an employer you should be educating your staff on its appropriate usage in order to minimise the likelihood of your employees using it to the detriment of themselves and or the reputation of the company.
Whilst I'm not privy to the content of social media policy relied upon by SBS so I can't comment on its soundness or otherwise – I take this opportunity to highlight that not only should all workplaces have a social media policy – but that social media policy should include guidelines to assist employees in their decision making process in determining what consists appropriate usage of all available platforms to both their benefit and the benefit of their employer.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
