A Leading Scottish legal firm is highlighting to employers the implications of staff accessing social networking sites.
Thorntons Solicitors are working to raise awareness of the legal aspects of misusing the Internet at work, and what provisions are already in place to monitor an employee's activity during working hours.
More than 110 employers from across Scotland will be attending a mock employment tribunal today at Discovery point in Dundee chaired by Derek Reid, Partner at Thorntons.
Designed to illustrate a typical Employment Tribunal structure and procedure, the mock tribunal will give employers the chance to familiarise themselves with the Tribunal procedure, to hear the facts and decide for themselves if their own company's practices and procedures stand up to the test of an unfair dismissal claim.
Derek Reid, Partner at Thorntons and a Specialist in Employment Law said: "Many employers, no matter how large or small may be unfamiliar with the Tribunal process, so we wanted to create a live example by which we can highlight the implications of this topical issue using a case study.
"In the case study, the claimant is accused of spending excessive amounts of time on the Internet – often networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and Friends Reunited.
"We felt it was important to include this in the case due to the increasing popularity of these social networking sites over the past few years.
This makes it far more important for companies and their employees to know fully where they stand on issues such as those raised by our staged tribunal.
"Firms need to clarify their policies – where some might think certain things constitute dismissal, there may be no clear contractual statement in place to govern procedure.
"We hope that by creating a typical real-life situation, we can use our experience to raise awareness to employers in Scotland of how issues can arise, and how to ensure the best procedures are in place before the staged tribunal becomes a reality."
Issued by Beattie Communications on behalf of Thorntons Solicitors.
Contact: Kimberley Hamilton, Tel 01698 787878