New Zealand employment lawyer outlines what employers need to do before it becomes an issue
Freedom of speech is a right all workers have - but what happens when an employee’s personal expression spills into the workplace, raising concerns about reputation and conduct?
HRD spoke with Russell Drake, Employment Law Consultant at Russell Drake Consulting, based in Hamilton, who noted the issue isn’t uncommon.
“We often see times when the boundary of where a person’s work relationship starts and ends. Comments and actions made outside of work can have real impacts for the place you work, without you necessarily realising,” Drake said.
The comments follow reports that an investigation was launched by an employer after a man wearing a company lanyard heckled Deputy Prime Minister, Winston Peters, during a press conference earlier this month.
The Free Speech Union say the incident had nothing to do with the man's employer, an engineering consulting firm.
"It's common practice for employers to ask employees to wear items like lanyards to help with workplace identification for reasons such as security,” the Union said.
"Companies can't have it both ways: requiring employees to be identifiable for branding or security purposes, but not when expressing lawful personal views on their own time."
In a situation like this it is important to look at when work responsibilities end so personal life can begin, Drake told HRD, to...
A video on Facebook posted on 26 November and since viewed over 30,000 times falsely claims that the UK Supreme Court has just ordered a new general election. This is completely untrue. The Supreme...