Companies need to rewrite employment contracts to deal with blogging phenomenon

An interesting article was published in the Scotsman last week about how blogging is impacting the need to reform employment contracts.

"The surge in blogging means thousands of Scottish companies will need to rewrite employment contracts, according to a leading Scottish lawyer.

With the number of workers sacked for revealing personal, inappropriate or confidential details on their weblogs, or blogs, growing weekly, experts have warned that new procedures are needed to ensure they can cope with the phenomenon."

Noele McClelland, at the law firm, Thorntons says court cases and complex legal battles emerging from dismissals of bloggers revealed that many employers are unprepared.

"By their nature, blogs and online diaries set out to entertain or provoke, but the blog culture has overtaken existing employment and internet use policies. The majority of these references may be responsible or relatively benign, but some highlight the blogger's displeasure with their employer or colleagues. It may cause nothing more than a minor embarrassment, but at worst, it has the potential to affect the company's entire corporate image.If an employer relies on a good public image, they ought to be considering the potential effects of blogging on their business."

Source of post - Kevin O'Keefe