Social media comments can lead to dismissal from work

Davies Ndumiso Sibanda

WITH increased use of technology, employees have to be careful on how they communicate on various electronic platforms while away from work as they can be disciplined for their conduct while away from work.

The persuasive South Africa case Edcon Limited vs Cantamessa and others is likely to change working people’s behaviour on social media. Cantamessa was employed by Edcon as a buyer, on her Facebook status she had stated that she was an Edcon Employee. She uploaded a racist comment to her Facebook page and it was this upload that led to her dismissal from employment.

She commented “Watching Carte Blanch and listening to these ***** monkeys running our country and how everyone makes excuses for the stupid man we call a president *** President my *** ***!#Zumamustfall#. This makes me crazy mad”. It is this post that Edcon found objectionable and instituted disciplinary action against Cantamessa.

Later, Edcon received a complaint from Amanda Sibeko complaining to Edcon about the conduct of their employee and later, the Sowetan News posted the racist article about an Edcon employee who had made a racist slur. This attracted a demand from many twitter users for Edcon to take action against Cantamessa.

The case brings up a key legal case in that conduct by an employee outside work can attract disciplinary action from the employer. The court confirmed that the employer has no jurisdiction or competency to discipline an employee for conduct that is not work related, which occurs outside working hours.

The court ruled that the employer could only discipline the employee where it is established that there is a connection between the employee’s conduct and the business.

In Cantamessa’s case, while the court recognized that the comment made by Cantamesa did not relate to the employer-employee relationship, the fact that Cantamessa in her profile stated that she worked for Edcon created a nexus. The court ruled that Cantamessa was guilty as she had chosen to go public with her relationship with Edcon and as such all publicity from her Facebook page therefore needed to be positive.

The usage of the word “monkey” was found to be offensive thus placing Edcon at a risk of reputational damage. Thus, her dismissal was found to be fair. While the case is persuasive in Zimbabwe, the results is our courts on similar cases are likely to be the same. This puts pressure on the working population to be careful about thigs they post on social media especially in cases where they can be linked to their employers or other organizations they are connected to.

One has to decide whether he wants to go public about where he or she works or organisations he or she is connected to. It could be safer to avoid giving information about where you work. I am of the opinion that there is also a need to be careful about behaviour when putting on employer’s company colours as that could put the worker within reach of the employer’s disciplinary machinery.

In conclusion, employees are better off completely separating their private social media activities from their employment if they are to stay safe from being disciplined for social media conduct engaged in after working hours.

Davies Ndumiso Sibanda can be contacted on:

email: [email protected]