Gose Stories

According to a new survey of 1,400 CIOs of companies with 100 or more employees, 54% now completely block employees from accessing social networking sites at work.

Only 10% of those surveyed let employees use social networks however they please, while the remainder all impose at least some restrictions on usage, like limiting it to business purposes only.

I'm not surprised by this but it's disappointing. To me, it's always been a management issue -- not a technology one. It wasn't that long ago that only a few employees had email access. That changed over time and so will this.

Companies will find it hard to recruit new employees if they block too much access for invalid reasons.

Six prison workers must wait until next week to find out if they will be sacked for criticising their bosses on Facebook.

The officers have each been sent a letter indicating the Corrective Services Department is considering sacking them for misconduct over comments they made on Facebook, which the department described as "bullying" and "harassment".

But the public sector union - which regards the sacking threat as an attempt to stifle dissent - has taken the matter to the Industrial Relations Commission.

It wants the IRC to put a hold on any sacking attempts and also to consider a change to the award safeguarding the rights of workers to speak freely outside work hours.

The contentious comments were made on a Facebook group titled "Suggestions to help Big RON save a few clams", which criticises State Government plans to privatise NSW prisons and suggests other ways that NSW Corrective Services Commissioner Ron Woodham could save money.

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, Public Service Association senior industrial officer Stewart Little said.

"Talking on Facebook is the same as people talking in the pub letting off steam but the department is trying to say it's like going on ABC News at night.

"We say it's somewhere in between the two, but much closer to the lower end of the spectrum."

The Facebook group was popular with hundreds of prison officers, and its members colloquially referred to themselves as "clamsters", he said.

Among the comments posted on the group, members suggested the department could save money by sacking senior officials who they claimed added little value. Other comments also revealed areas of wastage within Corrective Services.

The union also argued it was inappropriate for Mr Woodham or his deputy to judge whether the six should be sacked - as the letter sent to the officers states - as he was the alleged victim of their comments, Mr Little said.

I have a feeling were going to start seeing more and more of these issues popping up. Internal communications taking place outside the workplace is not anything new. But it is new for employers to be able to track it.