You may have noticed in your preferred social media feed the
startling news that unfriending someone on Facebook
now amounts to bullying in Australia. The news of this new
Australian regime spread quickly, being reported by
US and
UK news websites. It was enough to send shivers down the spines
of countless Facebook users, worried about the legal ramifications
of their social media use. It was also, of course, completely
inaccurate.
It is indeed true that
Fair Work Commission deputy president Nicole Wells found that Ms
Rachael Roberts, an employee of a Launceston real estate
agency, was the victim of bullying by another employee, Mrs Lisa
Bird. It is further correct that Mrs Bird unfriending Ms Roberts on
Facebook was raised in the matter, however this was amongst 16
other allegations, many of them far more serious including
behaviour that sabotaged her work for clients and the enforcement
of workplace policies against Ms Roberts that were not enforced
against
