Posted on 09/17/2009 1:16:41 AM PDT by Aussie Dasher
UNIONS say prison officers are entitled to make offensive comments about their boss outside of work hours and should not be penalised for doing so.
Six prison officers have been threatened with the sack for posting derogatory comments about New South Wales Corrective Services Commissioner Ron Woodham on a Facebook page titled "Suggestions to help Big Ron save a few clams", the Public Service Association (PSA) confirmed.
The page was set up in October last year when prison officers decided to vent their anger over Government plans to privatise two of the state's prisons - one at Parklea and another at Cessnock in the Hunter Valley, PSA spokesman Stewart Little told AAP.
The Government abandoned plans to sell off Cessnock jail in May.
In April the officers who set up the page, dubbed the Facebook Five, were issued with letters from the Department of Corrective Services threatening to terminate their employment.
. The PSA responded by filing an application with the NSW Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) to hear an unfair dismissal application for the workers before they were formally fired.
(Excerpt) Read more at heraldsun.com.au ...
That kind of behavior seems pretty unprofessional, all the while taxpayers are footing the bill for arbitration.
Freedom of speech is pretty important, but there is also a right way and wrong way to use it to affect the kind of change one is looking for.
If done in their own time then they only have to worry about defamation! Of course the boss should sick his lawyers on them if they cross the line!
Mel
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