Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Legal Q&AHR strategyEmployer brandingEthics

Weekly dilemma: Blogging

by Personnel Today 17 Apr 2007
by Personnel Today 17 Apr 2007

I have discovered one of my employees has been keeping a blog – and it has been used to make several disparaging remarks about the company. Apart from being frustrated that these opinions weren’t shared with us, I am also worried as several business acquaintances have mentioned the blog to me. How can I prevent this from happening again, and can I sack the employee for this?

You can take steps to protect the hard-won reputation of your company. Internet service providers (ISP) are aware they may be held as the publishers of defamatory comments, leaving them liable for damages in any potential defamation claim, so contact the ISP hosting the blog to make it aware that the blog is potentially defamatory, and request immediate withdrawal of the material.

Although you can stop others reading the comments, this won’t compensate for the effect on your company’s reputation. A comment is defamatory if it tends to make people think worse of you, and this is what you must prove. You could, therefore, launch a defamation action against the employee, with the aim of receiving either damages, an apology, or merely acting as a warning to employees that such behaviour will not be tolerated.

Your case will be strengthened if you can prove that people such as customers thought less of the business after reading the blog, so approaching those individuals who have read it and getting their thoughts in writing would be a good starting point.

The disciplinary measures you can take will depend on your employee’s contract terms. This may amount to an act of misconduct.

Be very wary of sacking the employee unless you are sure you are within your rights to do so. In a recent case decided in France, a British woman, sacked for writing a personal blog, won a tribunal against the company that fired her. The publicity surrounding the tribunal led to tens of thousands of people accessing the blog. Certainly not what the employer wanted.

Alison Henders-Green, partner, Dolmans

Briton sacked for writing Paris blog wins tribunal case

Avatar
Personnel Today

previous post
Leadership and Motivation – The fifty-fifty rule and the eight key principles of motivating others
next post
Teachers’ union the Association of Teachers and Lecturers set for court action over ‘cyber-bullying’

You may also like

Davos 2022: Upskilling workers necessary to overcome business...

26 May 2022

Davos hears that ‘wages can rise’ without creating...

26 May 2022

Adapt culture to hybrid work: do not force...

20 May 2022

Women in FTSE 350 leadership: ‘A lot of...

20 May 2022

Squishy, flabby, foggy HR? Andrew Bartlow talks to...

20 May 2022

How to build a compelling talent attraction strategy...

12 May 2022

Only 5% of job ad wording fully gender...

9 May 2022

Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover: how to avoid a...

5 May 2022

Employees drive ESG goals for HR, study claims

4 May 2022

Mary Portas and coalition of firms urge MPs...

21 Apr 2022
  • Strathclyde Business School expands its Degree Apprenticeship offer in England PROMOTED | The University of Strathclyde is expanding its programmes...Read more
  • The Search for Talent: Six Major Employer Pitfalls PROMOTED | The Great Resignation continues unabated...Read more
  • Navigating the widening “Skills Confidence Gap” in 2022, and beyond PROMOTED | Cornerstone OnDemand conducted a global study...Read more
  • Apprenticeships are the solution to your recruitment problems PROMOTED | Apprenticeships have the pulling power...Read more
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+