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Prison Guards Suing For The Right To Bitch About Their Bosses In Private Online Forums
from the unfair-discipline dept
A group of five prison guards in Australia wanted to bitch about their boss... and did so in a private group on Facebook. Yet, somehow, their superiors found out about it and accused them of misconduct and threatened to have the guards fired. In response, the guards are suing, and saying they should have a right to speak their mind on a private message board like that. As a union official notes:
"It's more like people getting together in a pub and having a beer and bagging the boss because the boss wants to privatize their jobs."
Indeed. Though, it seems like these sorts of things are becoming more common. As the entire work/life dividing line continues to blur, expect many more such situations, where things that were previously considered safely on the "life" side of the line, suddenly find themselves thrust into the "work" side.
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Reader Comments (rss)
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DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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And by the way DUMB-ASS, whatever you put on Facebook IS private.
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Re:
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Oh,
DUH!
Go back to school for reality and get out of your fantasy world where you think that what you put on the WWW is private.
HA!
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Rights!
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I'm generally supportive of the "employment at-will" practice, and supportive of employers being able to hire/fire for most any reason they deem necessary. In general.
However, "employment at-will" does not correlate 100% to the legal environment here in the U.S. or (as I indirectly understand) in Austrailia.
Every boss SHOULD know there are potential liabilities for certain kinds of conduct in disciplining employees.
In the case from the article, this particular "boss" is so monumentally stupid, he actually called out this group "bitch session" as the reason for bringing disciplinary action.
In light of the expressed ignorance of this "boss" and the company who allowed him into that position, I wholeheartedly support the full litigation of the colon they are about to receive.
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1) Explain how you can legally access a private page on Facebook.
2) Explain how, if it's not a legal method, it won't get either thrown out of court or get the person who uses said private information arrested for felony access to a computer system.
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DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
You can alter Facebook's setting so only your friend and read cretin posting, beside the Government of Australia is not a business, they should allow worker and citizens to speak their mind.
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Libel and Slander laws are undergoing a huge shake up in the US and other countries due to the move away from written word is actionable because publishing was so expensive as to be only the realm of the newpaper and professional publisher. Now we are ina world were publishing your thoughts is the equivalant of spoken unoffical speech because anyone can do it. However the laws still hold that things published can be grounds for libel... so what is free speech now when it's published for the world to read?
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A subpoena from the appropriate court will do the trick nicely.
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Re: Rights!
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Idiots are often ignorant of their own stupidity
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As I have said before, DUH!
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From the article:
"...they had made 'unauthorized public comment' on their department's work and 'comment to the media without permission.'"
Bitching in a private Facebook group of five (or so) members is now making a public comment to the media?
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