Employers using Facebook to check up on staff

Employers using Facebook to check up on staff

25.9.2008

Employees need to be aware of their bosses using Facebook to check up on what their staff are really doing if they call in sick.

According to a new study by employment law consultancy Peninsula Ireland, 83 per cent of 647 employers questioned said they use social networking sites to check if their workers really are ill.

A further 67 per cent said they had taken disciplinary action against their staff after discovering they had been lying about why they were off work, the Irish Times reports.

Alan Price, head of Peninsula Ireland said: "Employees should realise that there is a chance they are being monitored in this way and that their bosses will no longer tolerate their false absences."

The study also found that 74 per cent of employees have been caught using networking sites while they were meant to be working.

As well as checking the Facebook pages of interviewees, managers were advised earlier this month to look out for job-seekers taking advantage of discrimination laws by submitting two CVs and leaving their ethnic minority blank on one.

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