Social Media and Employment Law: An International Survey

Book excerpt: In the last few years, social media has become the primary way of communicating, not only among friends and colleagues but also between employers and employees and between companies and consumers. For employers, the phenomenon offers great opportunities, but also concomitant dangers due primarily to use of social media by employees and employees' representatives. Written in the context of employment laws as well as privacy laws, this book surveys the state of the law in over thirty key jurisdictions, including most of the developed countries of Europe, Asia, and North America and major developing countries worldwide. The publication arose from a seminar prepared by the editors and others at which it was clearly identified that internationally operating employers need a comprehensive and user-friendly multinational summary on employment and labour law questions arising in connection with the use of social media. The book is divided into country chapters, each written by a known local specialist. In order to easily 'navigate' through the issues for each country, the chapters follow a uniform structure, covering the applicable statutory regimes, case law, useful checklists, and recommendations. Among the issues and topics dealt with are the following: - employees' entitlement to use social media at the workplace; - whether employers can require the use of social media by employees; - right of employers to monitor employees' use of social media outside the workplace; - employers' potential liability for employees' misuse of social media; - right of employee representatives to use employers' equipment for social media purposes; - employers' remedies against misuse of social media by employees and employee representatives; - development and drafting of a social media policy; and - role of social media in employer–employee disputes. No other publication exists providing interested parties with a practical and strategic guide to legal issues affecting the use of social media in the workplace. With its easy-to-use country-by-country format and its expert recommendations, this unique resource will prove itself as an incomparable handbook for lawyers, human resources professionals, and in-house counsel advising or working for internationally operating businesses. It will also be of inestimable value for academics and policymakers concerned with the legal ramifications of social media use in the workplace.