5 Five sessions · one staff room
Social media training for staff: policy, practice and the law
Training staff who post means teaching three sets of rules at once: the workplace rules an employer sets, the consumer law that covers what staff say about the business, and the privacy law that covers the people in their posts. This guide, published by Dotto, takes each in turn, from the official sources listed at the foot of each page.
General information only, not legal or employment advice, and never advice about one person’s job or dismissal. The official places to check are the Fair Work Ombudsman and the Fair Work Commission for workplace rules, the ACCC for consumer law, the OAIC for privacy, and ASQA for vocational training.
Three rulebooks in every post
A single post by a staff member can touch all three at once. A complaint about a customer, with a screenshot of the customer’s message, is a workplace conduct question, a privacy question and, if the post is about the business’s products, a consumer law question.
The workplace
Fair Work Ombudsman · Fair Work Commission
business.gov.au lists “appropriate use of computers, internet and social media” among the policies a business can consider having. The Fair Work Ombudsman’s first point to tell staff is that social media and electronic messages are not private.
Consumer law
ACCC
“There are no specific or different consumer laws in place for social media.” Its advertising guide adds that the laws against false or misleading claims reach social media just as they reach any other way of marketing.
Privacy
OAIC
Photos and videos of a person are personal information under the Privacy Act 1988 if the person’s identity is clear or could reasonably be worked out. business.gov.au puts it plainly: “Never share anyone’s personal information on your public channels.”
The limits on both sides
The Fair Work Commission’s benchbook on conduct sets out a limit for employers: an employer’s right to supervise what employees do in private arises only in exceptional circumstances, and out-of-hours conduct must have a relevant connection to the employment.
The same benchbook sets out the other side: a substantial and wilful breach of a policy will often be a valid reason for dismissal, though a valid reason alone does not settle whether a dismissal was harsh, unjust or unreasonable, and widespread breaches that drew no response from the employer weigh against finding a dismissal justified. A policy also has to be lawful itself. In one case the benchbook lists, a Full Bench found a direction to follow a company policy was unlawful because it breached the Privacy Act, and the employee could refuse it.
Training sits between the two. A policy staff have been taught, and that is applied the same way to everyone, is the part an employer controls before any of those questions arise.
Who checks what
| Body | What its pages cover here |
|---|---|
| Fair Work Ombudsman | Best practice on workplace privacy and social media expectations. It says it does not investigate unfair dismissal complaints. |
| Fair Work Commission | Decides unfair dismissal cases, and can order reinstatement or compensation. |
| ACCC | The consumer law on social media posts and online reviews. |
| OAIC | The Privacy Act, including photos, employee records and workplace monitoring. |
| ASQA | The national regulator for vocational education and training. |
Five sessions, in the order a business meets them
- 1
A policy staff can follow
What a workplace social media policy tells staff, and how it reaches them.
- 2
When a post costs a job
The questions the Fair Work Commission asks about out-of-hours posts.
- 3
Accredited or not
Reading a course listing against the national training register.
- 4
Staff who speak for the brand
Staff reviews, staff replies and the consumer law.
- 5
Privacy in staff training
Customers and colleagues in posts, photos and screenshots.
Each session stands on its own, and each links to the official pages it draws on, listed at the foot of the page.