Executive Summary
The employers must consider the employment laws that protect the rights and freedom of the employees in and outside the workplace. In this case scenario, as an HR consultant, one needs to identify the organizational as well as an ethical code of conduct. Analyzing the current social media policy of the organization, necessary laws, legislations and regulations can be presented to provide a logical argument in favor of the plaintiff. Furthermore, the paper will discuss the importance of effective human resource social media policy to tackle disciplinary breach of conducts. Meanwhile, the offensive post of Tolu can be identified as one of the major issues regard to social media policy of an organization. Therefore, the company can take some steps against the employee. On the other flip, several laws and regulations can be presented to create an argument against the decision of the management to terminate the employee showing the particular action. The paper will discuss the situation of the plaintiff and develop significant HR social media policy to support further decision making.
Introduction
It is important to an employee as well as the HR managers to understand the HRM policies of the organization. The management must be conscious of the employment laws to keep the organization safe from legal obligations and doing injustice to any individual. It can be seen in the case study that Tolu works for a leading holiday company as a customer service assistant. The management of the company decided to terminate Tolu because of her misconduct outside the workplace. Tolu made a wrong statement against her employer and delivered a false statement of sickness to take leave from her daily over pressured working life. This was the primary reason for the employer to fire her from her job giving the excuse of the post which she made on her social media account. The paper will analyze the employment laws and the rights of employees in the workplace. The paper will analyze other legislations like the right to speech at the workplace and Social Media Privacy Act to evaluate whether justice was done to Tolu by her employers. Along with that, the paper presents the HRM practices model that must be utilized to construct the HRM policies of the organization.
The employee use of social media outside and inside the workplace has become an important concern for the management of any organization. The National Labor Relations Board lags behind in stating the employment policies and practices that are related to the social media usage by the employees. If we look from the employer's point of view, it can be seen that the management has terminated Tolu from her job to save the reputation of the company. The social media account of Tolu presents that she is an employee of the enterprise. Any wrong statement made by her through the social media can lead to losing of the reputation of the company. If the employer lets her carry the same attitude towards the company, it will encourage other employees to repeat the mistake that has been made by Tolu. Hence, it can be said that the management is correct from the employer's perspective (Rasouli et al.). Along with that, it can be seen that Tolu has made a false statement to take leave from her over pressured daily working life. Hence, it can be seen that Tolu has misconduct the company norms by giving a false declaration.
But if we look from the point of view of the employee, it can be seen that an injustice has been done to her. To prove the injustice done to Tolu, we can consider several laws and legislations that safeguard the rights of the employee at the workplace. The laws and legislations are discussed in the points given below:
Civil Rights Act of 1964: It can be seen from the Civil Rights Act that the employees have the right to protection of their employment. A company cannot terminate the job of an employee without any misconduct in the workplace (Andrews and Gaby). Along with that, the company needs to present the policies of misconduct outside the workplace to terminate an employee in that case. Hence, it can be seen that Tolu has the right to protect her employment and file a case in the court of law to defense her misconduct.
Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986: The acts presents that the employers do not have the rights to look into the contents of a password-protected electronic communication account of an employee. It can be seen that around 20 states in the country have the law that prohibits employers from requesting employees to disclose their passwords or provide access to their social media accounts. Along with that, the employees have the rights to have a personal life outside the organization (Rubenzer). The social media provides an individual with the right to express their feelings and thoughts about a situation or incidents that take place in the society. The employers can use the social media to investigate the activities of the employees but cannot terminate them in respect of any post made on the social media.
The National Labor Relation Act: Section 7 of the National Labor Relation Act protects the rights of the employees to post on the social media sites. The law states that an individual has freedom of speech and has the right to express their feelings in the public for their work and the employer. It is up to the employer to control the employee from not posting such comments on the social media sites. The overburden of work can be the primary reason for such misconducts (Crager). Hence, it is important for the management to monitor the pressure exerted to keep them mentally satisfied in the job. Along with that, the law states that an employer cannot terminate an employee on behalf of a post made by them over the social media sites because social media is there to present personal feelings and every individual of the nation has the right to present their feelings and thoughts about a particular situation or event.
Hence, it can be seen from the analysis that an injustice has been done to Tolu by firing her from the job. Though the company needs to maintain a good reputation in the market, the employers do not have the right to terminate her on behalf of the social media post. Hence, it is important for the employers to go through the employment laws and regulations that protect the rights of the employees.
In this very case scenario, the plaintiff has a strong case in her hand. Tolu has identified that she had made a significant mistake by commenting rudely on her Facebook Page about her employers. Besides, she had delivered a false statement in her absence in work. Considering the particular incident, the management of the organization has concluded to a decision that leads to the termination of Tolu. After a complete analysis of this particular case scenario, as an HR consultant, it is my duty to establish legal terms and actions that can work for Tolu. In addition to that, an argument of the implications for good quality practices in order to manage social media within the agency has been presented herein referencing best HR practices theories and guidelines (Flew).
Most like the other social media cases affecting the employee-employer relationship; this particular case has followed the same pattern. Without understanding the mean value of a comment, Tolu had delivered a statement on a social media platform that has been offensive to the employer. As a reason of the consequences, the management has decided to terminate Tolu for her offensive behavior in social media platform (Sheehan). But in most of the cases, employees have claimed that the social media post has been protected by the National Labor Relation Act and the Regulations of Freedom of Speech.
Following the case scenario of Tolu, as an HR consultant, I recommend Employee Rights Act, Electronic Communications Privacy Act, National Labor Relation Act and the Regulations of Freedom of Speech to be considered by the employers before terminating any employees showing causes that cannot be granted for a reason of employee termination (Datta Gupta and Eriksson). Considering the regulation of National Labor Relation Act, more often than not the Act stands for the employees causing significant monetary loss to the management. In this particular case scenario, section 7 of the National Labor Relation Act can be enforced to get prompt measures in favor of the plaintiff. In the case of good practices in HRM in order to manage social media in the organizational workplace, the HRM must judge social media privacy protections and put into practice a social media policy to improve the overall work culture of the employees (Ortuoste).
Understanding the strategic level, operational level, and business process level of an organization, best HR practice model can be constructed by framing policy, recruitment and retention and the effectiveness of policy respectively (Innocenti, Pilati and Peluso). Identifying the social media platform scenario, the HRM must not be diverted to some issues and offensive posts immediately. Considering the legislation and regulations that have been formed in order to protect the employees and their online presence, social media related cases must be handled with significant care and sensitivity (Šarotar Žižek, Potočnik and Vaner). The appropriate meaning of a post must be evaluated before concluding to any decision that leads to employee termination. Following the HRM practice model, valid code of conduct and organizational ethics can be produced in front of the human resources prohibiting them from making such mistakes (Lewicka and Krot).
Most importantly, it is the duty of an organization to develop an effective corporate culture within the workplace so that at no point in time any organizational member can show disrespect to each other whether it is social media or in organizational communication (José Chiappetta Jabbour). In addition to that, in the case of any circumstances where a member of the organization can develop a comment that can be offensive to an employer, the situation must be handled with sheer indulgent. The management must sit back to look into the matter and consider the seriousness of a comment or post; decisions should be made. In the case of any disrespectful post, the employee must be given a chance to make correction of the attitude. Sometimes, termination is not the solution (Ueno). For an organization, it is important to retain the best employees. Therefore, providing a chance to correct the mistake can control such situation.
Identifying significant issues and challenges that have to be faced by the employers on social media case scenario, an effective and proactive social media policy must be implemented to get the best outcome. Considering the online behavior of the employees, an upgrade of current HR policy model can deliver practical results to develop professional social media activities for the human resources (Kotzanikolaou). Creating a workplace culture, the organizational human resources must be agreed to follow the terms and conditions of organizational Codes of Conduct that can restrict them to make any comments counted offensive or disrespectful to others. Apart from that, such social media policy can be governed by recommending Employee Rights Act, Electronic Communications Privacy Act, National Labor Relation Act and the Regulations of Freedom of Speech so that any of the human resources cannot engage themselves in such comments, posts, e-mail within the social media (Auer).
Conclusion
Recent social media activities of the employees must be guided according to the organizational HRM code of conduct to ensure any of the human resources cannot breach the disciplinary measures set for the employees. Meeting the requirements of the National Labor Relation Act, dedicated social media policies must be identified to prevent any disciplinary violation of employees conduct. In this particular case scenario, Tolu can provide the guidelines for Laws and regulations to challenge the decision of the employers. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the employers to make an overview of the sections of the employee laws and regulations before crafting social media policies that can help the organizational people to get into any situation relevant to the issue. Considering the National Labor Relation Act, Tolu can show evidence that can work against her termination. Most importantly, the organization can bring legal allegation against Tolu for breaching the organizational code of conducts and ethical code of conduct, but the decision of employee termination for such cause can be considered as a harsh decision.
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