Woman fired over Facebook

27 Apr 2009

A Swiss woman was caught red-handed on Facebook while off work on a sick day has been fired.

The employee told her employer Nationale Suisse that she was incapacitated with a migrane and in serious need of a lie-down in a darkened room. However, a colleague "inadvertently noticed her using Facebook".

Nationale Suisse has stated that "those who are well enough to use Facebook with a migraine are well enough to work with a migraine".

In defence the woman claimed she accessed the net via her Blackberry while in bed. She says that Nationale Suisse had sent in an undercover Facebook operative which, once added to her "friends" list, was used to monitor her online activity.

She told that the "friend" quickly disappeared soon after she was fired.

This is a further example of employers using social networking sites to monitor employees. Back in February, a 16-year-old lass from Clacton-on-Sea was dismissed after describing her job as "boring" on her Facebook account.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber noted: "Most employers wouldn't dream of following their staff down the pub to see if they were sounding off about work to their friends."

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