Social media posts belong to the employee's private sphere. However, if they significantly harm the company where the employee works, the company may take disciplinary action.
As is widely known, the use of social networks such as Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter has increased significantly, which is giving rise to new labor conflicts regarding communications made by workers through these means.
What happens if communications made through social networks constitute a breach of employment obligations as a worker?
Sometimes, certain communications carried out by employees on social networks or blogs, corporate or personal, lead to breaches of employment obligations, either by publishing offensive or denigrating comments towards colleagues or the company itself, or by publishing photographs that directly prove a breach of their employment obligations as a worker.
Regardless of whether the publications are made during or outside the employee's working hours or using company or personal resources, if the communications made are contrary to contractual good faith, the company could apply the sanctioning regime as a corrective measure to such behavior, from disciplinary sanctions consisting of suspension of employment and salary, to even disciplinary dismissal in the event that the conduct is of particular seriousness.
There are court rulings that support the justification of disciplinary dismissal for the misuse of social media by employees. For example, there was the case of a worker who posted offensive comments on Facebook about her superiors, which were accessible to both company personnel and third parties. Another example is the case of a supermarket employee who posted photos on Facebook showing her ID badge, alcohol, and the store's safe. This behavior was deemed to clearly damage the company's image and could even incite robberies.
In any case, before proceeding to apply disciplinary measures, the impact of the message must always be taken into account, in the sense that it has a certain dissemination, as well as whether its content causes economic or reputational damage to the company, affecting its image, for example.
Finally, it should be noted that the employer's control over communications made by employees through social networks or blogs is legitimized by the public nature of the content.
If you require our assistance to obtain more information or have any questions, please contact us via email at ambit@ambitassessor.com or at our offices.
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A graduate in Law from the University of Barcelona, she also completed a Master's degree specializing in Labor Law and Social Security at the Barcelona Bar Association. She began her professional career as an intern while studying and later joined the Navarro Law Firm as an employment lawyer, advising companies nationwide on labor law matters and representing them before the Labor Courts, the Labor Inspectorate, in conciliation proceedings, etc. In February 2017, she joined Àmbit Jurídic i Econòmic as a professional partner after extensive experience as an employment lawyer.
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