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Speaker 1: Staff at Immigration New Zealand have been sacked or given

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Speaker 1: formal warnings for sending inappropriate messages about migrants their clients

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Speaker 1: to each other. So sixteen staff members at several branches

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Speaker 1: were disciplined inappropriately talking about visa applicants on team chats.

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Speaker 1: And you know team chats, it's a work software. We've

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Speaker 1: all used that. Employment expert Max Whitehead joins me now

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Speaker 1: to talk about this fell of Max.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Andrew. There's a shocker.

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Speaker 1: Is it a shocker? I mean hello, I mean everyone

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Speaker 1: is guilty about gossip being about our clients. These are

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Speaker 1: just clients that're talking about stuff they're helping. They're being collegial, Max.

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Speaker 2: Yes, but one, you're using an employer's tool to make

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Speaker 2: this disrespectful and could easily bring the employer into disrepute

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Speaker 2: and has because obviously these people now are in the media.

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Speaker 2: I mean Andrew Dickinson's talking about them right now.

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Speaker 1: Yes, that's true. So hod On, they made a very

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Speaker 1: important point because it's because it's on teams that makes

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Speaker 1: it worse.

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Speaker 2: It doesn't make it worse. And look, even if they

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Speaker 2: made a comment on their own social media like Facebook

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Speaker 2: or or any one of those TikTok or anything like

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Speaker 2: that at all, that brings the employer into disrepute. So

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Speaker 2: if they said something like this is the worst employer

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Speaker 2: anybody could have, I'm suffering here, that will bring that

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Speaker 2: will bring on discipline, reaction, and it could even be dismissal.

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Speaker 2: So the employer is required to have a policy before

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Speaker 2: they can enforce it. If it's not there's no policy,

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Speaker 2: they should at least give the person a warning first offense,

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Speaker 2: and then thereafter go after it. But employers need to

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Speaker 2: be aware that they also have to be careful of

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Speaker 2: free speech because people do have an entitlement to say

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Speaker 2: well what they like to some extent. But bringing someone

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Speaker 2: into disrepute that particularly your employer, the employer can be

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Speaker 2: reactive to it, and horrobably will.

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Speaker 1: Of course, my social media is full of me criticizing everybody.

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Speaker 1: You know, so I'm in big trouble, I guess. But

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Speaker 1: people forget about reputational risk and reputational risks to companies

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Speaker 1: and reputational risks to individuals and your own brand.

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Speaker 2: Correct and look more the higher ranking like look at you, you,

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Speaker 2: I'm in the highest ranking person in ZB. If you

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Speaker 2: made a comment, you would be in worse trouble than

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Speaker 2: perhaps someone lowly down down the line. If I was

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Speaker 2: just a normal employee who fronted up and did all

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Speaker 2: the leg work, that that would have a big, big

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Speaker 2: ramification for you. Now there's there's a couple of court

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Speaker 2: cases which are really interesting. One man had road rage

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Speaker 2: and actually ran over somebody, and that made headlines. And

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Speaker 2: of course, but everyone knew where this person worked. He

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Speaker 2: had a high profile, and so the employer dismissed him,

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Speaker 2: even though I had nothing to do with the workplace,

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Speaker 2: dismissed him for bringing into distribute. Another person on the

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Speaker 2: birthday cake put something like and I worked for the

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Speaker 2: worse bees in the world. You know, I can't say

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Speaker 2: the word, but certainly that person on social media and

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Speaker 2: thought it was funny and wow, gone finished.

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Speaker 1: All right, Max, that's a very good warning. That is

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Speaker 1: Max Whitehead here is an employment law specialist with white

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Speaker 1: Head Consultants. And look here's something. Make some rules for

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Speaker 1: yourself if your employer, please make a rule for your

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Speaker 1: employees too, so you know, just in case they are

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Speaker 1: having a bit of a gossip, they realize that that's

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Speaker 1: the wrong thing. Don't just come out of the blue,

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Speaker 1: and remember termination is terminal.

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