It is not ground for taking disciplinary action
general comments were made and not directed at the employer
employee has not maligned company reputation
if necessary withdraw the post
Is it possible to take disciplinary actions based on a post in social media.
Is it possible to take disciplinary actions against an employee based on his/her post on a general subject in a social media like Facebook or LinkedIn? "Now a days work from home is treated as 24x7 office hours.. Its like all are working from homes and are saving a lot of time commuting and this should allow all to put in more time and efforts regardless of working days or weekends..where is this world heading to... Seems employees don't have families or personal life.. Frustrated with Covid life styles. How long this will continue" This was the post by one of my friend in LinkedIn .He got an email from his manager stating that this is a serious disciplinary issue.
Asked 2 years ago in Labour
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5 Answers
- Section 66A of the IT Act, prohibits the sending of offensive messages though a communication device, i.e. through an online medium.
- This covers, offensive messages of a menacing character, or a message that the sender knows to be false but is sent for the purpose of ‘causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, or ill will.
- The person who booked under Section 66A could face up to 3 years of imprisonment along with a fine.
- If the said post is causing annoyance , inconvenience then only employer can take legal action against the employee.
- Further, the said statements of the employee are not offensive and insult or ill will , hence on this ground cannot take any action against the employee.
Disciplinary action through departmental inquiry may be initiate if the department concerned is collecting substantial evidence to prove that the message spread through such social media platform are rumours and false spread with an intention tarnish the image of the department, besides they can even issue a legal notice show causing the employee the reason for his such utterances or libel messages.
However the message sent by the employee was not blaming anyone in particular, if his manager had sent any notice to this effect, the employee can very well deny the allegations and can challenge the same legally because the said message is neither defamatory nor intended to attack anyone personally. It was his personal expression due to the frustrations he had experienced due to the nature of stress which he had experienced owing to work from home situation.
In my opinion there is no undisciplined behavior or attitude by the employee by posting such message in a social media platform.
Dear Client,
The firm can not take any disciplinary action against an employee for his posts on general subjects as the firm is not, in particular, being defamed or subjected to any negative comments personally.
Thank you.
You can reply to the email stating that the same is not. It's better you hire a lawyer to draft the same
