Cause for Termination in the Age of Social Media

• Author: Jonathan Maier
• Pages: 281-304



CauseforTermination

intheAgeofSocialMedia

Jonathan Maier*

AINTRODUCTION

Debatesand diatribes amongemployeesregardi ngtheir workingcon-

ditions supervisors and colleagues long predate the advent of social

medianetworksAtonetimesuchmaerswereaddressedonlythrough

facetofacediscussionsbothi nsideandoutsidetheworkplaceAstech-

nologychangedthesecommunicationseventuallyfoundtheirwayinto

elect ronic formthrough emaila ndtext message sMorer ecentl yastech-

nologyhascontinuedto evolveonline blogsandsocialmediawebsites

suchasFacebo okandTwierhaveprovidedmoreadvanc edandexpan-

siveforumsfortheseactivitiesSocialmediatoolshaveenabledemploy-

eestocommunicatebothintentionallyandunintentionallywithalarger

audienceatany timefroma nywhereint heworldmerelythrough ac-

cesstoacomputer

This paper will explore several issues related to circ umstances

whereanemployeesbehaviouronsocialmediaoutletsca nsupporthis

orherdismissa lforcauseItwillfocuspr imarilyoncaseswher eanem-

ployeesonlinebehaviouroccur swhenheorsheisoduty

This paper will not address circ umstances where an employee is ter-

minateddue toexcessiveu seofso cialmedia toolsduring timeswhen

theemployeeisexpectedtoworkPutsimplyitisdiculttoseewhythe

 JonathanMaierisa nassociateatHicksMorleyHam iltonStewartStorieLLP

Torontowithalegalpracticethatencompa sseslabourandemploymentlaw

JM

summarydismis salofanemployeewhowastestoomuchtimeonhisor

her Faceb ooka ccou ntsh ould bet reate dan ydi ere ntlyt ha namor etr ad-

itional situation where an employee wastes too much working time on

moret radit iona lleis urely pursu itsE mployme ntlawp rinc iplesc oncer n-

ingt imewasting andt heinappropriate useof worktime donot need

signicantmodicationsimplybecauseemployeeshavebeenpresented

withanewwaytodistractthemselvesfromcompletingtheirwork

Usingwellestablishedemploymentlawprinciplesemployershave

beenabletousea nemployeesoduty comments orconductto support

anemployeesdismissalforcauseprovidedt hatthebehaviouratis sue

wassuciently damagingto theemployersreputationThis approach

is still used in a n era where many employees access social media outlets

dailyNevert helessi nthisne wdigital agetheest ablishedpr incipleso n

how an employer responds to injurious social media content created or

disseminatedbyitsemployeesshouldbereviewedandrened

This proposedreviewa ndrenementis necessary fortwospeci c

reasons First employee communications that are made using social

media tools are qualitatively dierent from communications t hat are

madeusingmoretraditionalmodesBlogpostsFacebookcommentsand

Twierstatusupdatesth atunfairlydi sparageormalign anemployers

businessworkforceorstandinginthecommunitycanbefarmoredam-

aging thant hosethat are madeusing oldermeans ofcommunicat ion

Second labour arbitrators and other administrative adjudicators have

begunto addressissuesinvolvingthe terminationofemployeesforso-

cialmedi amisdeedsusi ngananalyt icalframeworkth atisbroaderthan 

thetraditionalemploymentlawframeworkThetraditionalemployment

lawframeworkhas oftenfocu sedont heconsequences thatmaybefal l

anemployersreputationIncontrasttheapproachusedbylabourarbi-

tratorsallowsfora nexaminationof moretypesof harmincluding the

harmsueredbyotherpartiesintheworkplacerelationshipThereisno

reasonwhythisbroaderanalyticalframeworkshouldbeconnedtothe

unionized workplaceorapa rticularstatutory adjudicativeregimeThe

potential expansionof thisf rameworkwithin theeld ofemployment

lawmeritscloserexamination

This paper is divided into three ma in parts The rst part of the

paper will provide a brief review of the traditional employment law

principlesthatapplywhena nemployeeisterminatedforcauseb ecause

ofodutyconductItwillthenexplainwhyemployeecommunications

madeusingsocialmediatoolsarequalitativelydierentfromcommuni-

cations made using more traditional methods Finally the paper will

providea moredetailed examination ofthe analytical frameworkthat