Lesotho labour laws and social media misconduct

Abstract

Social media misconduct is a relatively new concept which is challenging the parameters of the law in employment relations. The challenge with social media misconduct is that it affects certain constitutional rights such as the right to privacy and freedom of expression. There must exist a reasonable, if not perfect balance between the rights of an employee to privacy and freedom of expression against the interests of the employer to a good name and reputation. While there may have been no recorded case of social media misconduct in Lesotho there has been a noticeable increase in the use of social media. With such an increased usage of social media and its platforms, it is not unreasonable to anticipate that sooner or later Lesotho courts will be confronted with the dilemma of social media misconduct within the workplace. The purpose of this study therefore, is to examine whether the current Lesotho labour law legal framework, sufficiently confronts and addresses the issue of social media misconduct. The findings of this study reveal that the two labour legislations (Labour Code Order and Codes of Good Practice) do not expressly deal with social media misconduct. Neither do the laws indicate whether this form of misconduct should be dealt with in the same way as any other forms of misconduct expressed under these two laws. The study recommends that in the face of this legal lacuna, these two pieces of legislation should be amended to suitably tackle social media misconduct.