What rights does a former employee have if their manager made comments about them on a social networking site?
Get Legal Help Today
Compare Quotes From Top Companies and Save
Secured with SHA-256 Encryption
What rights does a former employee have if their manager made comments about them on a social networking site?
An employee felt harassed by members of management and had made several in-house and corporate complaints about the harassment. During the time of one harassing incident, comments were made on the manager’s social networking site detailing, and basically making light of, the harassment. Once the employee was separated from the company and contacted corporate it was discovered that many in house HR complaints were never escalated to corporate. On the day of the separation several comments were made about the separation on the managers page. Can this information be used to assist the employee?
Asked on September 29, 2010 under Employment Labor Law, Kentucky
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 14 years ago | Contributor
IF the comments--
1) Were discriminatory against a protected category (e.g. race, religion, age over 40, sex, disability) or
2) Were defamatory, in the sense of being untrue statements of fact that harmed the employee's reputation or made others not want to work/do business with him (note: opinions are NOT defamation, so it's "ok" for a manager to say, "Joe was a jerk" or "Joe's whinning about unimportant issues."
If the above is the case, the employee may have a legal claim against the company or the manager. Or (3) if the employee had a firm disciplinary or grievance policy, as reflected in an individual contract, a union agreement, or an employee handbook that did not have ANY of the usual caveats or limitions (e.g. did not say "policies may be changed at will," or "this does not create a contract"), then the employee may be able force the company to honor the terms of its own agreements.
In the absence of the above, there is probably very little recourse for the employee, however,
IMPORTANT NOTICE: The Answer(s) provided above are for general information only. The attorney providing the answer was not serving as the attorney for the person submitting the question or in any attorney-client relationship with such person. Laws may vary from state to state, and sometimes change. Tiny variations in the facts, or a fact not set forth in a question, often can change a legal outcome or an attorney's conclusion. Although AttorneyPages.com has verified the attorney was admitted to practice law in at least one jurisdiction, he or she may not be authorized to practice law in the jurisdiction referred to in the question, nor is he or she necessarily experienced in the area of the law involved. Unlike the information in the Answer(s) above, upon which you should NOT rely, for personal advice you can rely upon we suggest you retain an attorney to represent you.