Partner Article

Cole?s own goal - social media policy

Nigel Crebbin, employment partner at the commercial law firm, Berg, looks at how a lesson learned by Ashley Cole also has a lot to teach employers about social media.

Ashley Cole was clearly very angry when he heard what the FA Commission had to say about the evidence he gave at John Terry’s hearing into whether Terry had racially abused QPR player, Anton Ferdinand. In reaction, Cole took to Twitter and made a comment which was, to say the least, derogatory about the FA. However, he quickly deleted the comment and also has now apologised to the FA. Nevertheless, his comment has been widely reported in the media and Cole has been disciplined by Chelsea and charged with misconduct by the FA.

This demonstrates is how easy it is to make a careless comment by email or through social media networks and how once that comment has been made, you can’t turn back the clock. While Ashley Cole is obviously a high profile footballer, his ill-advised tweet is a lesson to everyone about the risk posed by social media use. Employees using social media, whether for business or for personal reasons, can easily cause their employers a problem if they make abusive comments about colleagues, customers or business contacts.

Often it’s easy to identify where someone works and abusive remarks, even if only made in haste and in the heat of the moment, can end up being very damaging, not only to the person who makes them but also to the reputation and business of their employer. These days, it’s crucial for employers to have in place a properly drafted social media policy and also for them to make sure that their employees are made fully aware of what that policy requires.

The policy should make clear that even comments made on personal Twitter, Facebook or similar accounts can have damaging consequences for the employer’s business if they are likely to offend fellow employees or business contacts. Employees need to be made clear that if they breach the policy’s requirements and make discriminatory or otherwise abusive comments, then their employer reserves the right to take disciplinary action against them and even, in certain circumstances, dismiss them. If you have a clear and comprehensive social media policy in place, then, as an employer, you are far less likely to run into social media problems. If it’s been made clear to your staff what they should and should not do and also clear what the consequences of non-compliance could be, then your employees are less likely to make remarks on social media which could cause issues for you.

Also, if you have a policy clearly setting down what disciplinary steps could be taken for non-compliance, then it’s much more likely that those disciplinary steps would be held by an Employment Tribunal to be fair and lawful, if things ever got to that stage. Chelsea’s manager, Roberto Di Matteo, commented after Ashley Cole’s tweet hit the headlines that Chelsea “have got a social media policy”. It would be interesting to know what that policy says and what steps were taken to draw it to the attention of Mr Cole and his colleagues.

(The information and opinions contained in this article are not intended to be comprehensive, nor to provide legal advice. No responsibility for its accuracy or correctness is assumed by Berg or any of its partners or employees. Professional legal advice should be obtained before taking, or refraining from taking, any action as a result of this article.)

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Berg .