Mon, 9 Jan 2012

Can you be fired for posting your CV on LinkedIn?

The case of John Flexman, who was fired for uploading his CV to LinkedIn, highlights the need for firms to have clear policies on social media use, experts say.

Flexman, an HR executive who was earning £68,000 a year at a gas exploration firm based in Reading, has taken his case to an employment tribunal.

As well as uploading his CV to LinkedIn Flexman included ‘career opportunities’ in his contact preferences.

He was accused by his manager of “inappropriate use of social media” and told he could be sacked.

The company, BG Group, says Flexman was in breach of company policy banning employees from registering ‘career opportunities’ as a contact preference on the site.

Despite this Flexman says 21 of his colleagues including his manager had registered this preference.

Flexman was also accused of including confidential information in the CV he posted online.

Legal view

Matthew Tom, head of employment at law firm Candey says looking for another job, including ticking ‘career opportunities’ and uploading a CV on LinkedIn is not in itself a breach of contract.

“Indeed the employer in this case made no such claim,” he said. “Unless there was a very clear policy specifying precisely how LinkedIn should be used, such actions would not normally even be misconduct, let alone a sackable offence.

“Even with a policy, dismissal would only be appropriate if the employee repeatedly disobeyed warnings to stop breaching the policy, in such a case the dismissal would be based on refusal to follow reasonable and lawful instructions.

“However, in this case the allegation of “inappropriate use of social media” was that the CV published negative comments about the employer and confidential information, which normally would amount to misconduct and possibly gross misconduct depending on what was actually published.

“Particularly as the employer had a clear policy, it is hard to see how the employee can succeed in claiming that taking disciplinary action to enforce the policy, after the employee refused a request to comply, could amount to constructive dismissal.”

Issues raised

Tom says the case nevertheless raises a number of issues that should be considered.

“Firstly, who owns LinkedIn contacts and can employers do anything about it if an employee leaves and contacts clients via LinkedIn, rather than stealing the database,” he said.

“Secondly it raises the issue of what is acceptable to write on social networking sites and particularly how a clear policy on use of social media can make all the difference in enabling employers to take effective action.”

Marcus Rowland, head of the employment group at law firm Wiggin, added: “Although a small minority of employers have put in place written rules on this type of thing, most employers do not have any form of policy on the use of social media. As a result, it’s reasonable to expect that there will be plenty more similar cases in the future.”

See also:

• Royal Mail pay ‘disaster’ could lead to tribunals and raises questions over in-house management of temp workers
• Fraudster who filed no tax, VAT or PAYE returns for seven years jailed for 18 months
• ‘Rapid Resolution’ scheme to replace tribunals in simple cases