Council worker sacked over  Facebook ‘slack’ slam

Brendan Gullifer

The Age: July 22, 2011

A young council roads worker has been sacked after commenting on Facebook  that the council had too many office staff and not enough workers.

Alec Armstrong, 21, posted the remarks on a Hepburn Shireresidents’  page last month and had his employment terminated five weeks later for what the  Victorian council called “intimidating or offensive” behaviour.

In postings made after hours on June 2, Mr Armstrong said council had 140  staff, but only 30 who worked outdoors. “Shows you how top heavy they are,” he posted. He said outdoor employees never had enough money to do the job properly.

“I work on the roads for the shire. There would be four office staff to one  of us. Their (sic) slack, and we need less office staff who aren’t slack and do  the job a bit more. We never have enough money to do a job the way it should be  done. That’s why rates are going up. Keep blaming it on the useless staff above  us.”

And in a post later that night, Mr Armstrong wrote: “Most of the staff don’t  live in the shire. It’s like they give a s…t about nothing but their pay  packet.”

When confronted by office managers about the postings, Mr Armstrong said he  immediately removed them and apologised. In a letter to council chief executive officer Kaylene Conrick July 7, Mr  Armstrong expressed his “deep regrets” over the incident.

He admitted it was “inappropriate, disrespectful and lacked the  professionalism” required by Hepburn Shire Council employees.

In the letter, Mr Armstrong pleaded to keep his job. “As a younger employee I would like the chance to learn from my mistake and  in future be more mature and respectful about what is said,” he wrote.

“I understand that I have done the wrong thing and that I will have to deal  with the consequences of my actions.”

Mr Armstrong said yesterday he recognised that unauthorised media commentary  was prohibited under the shire’s employee code of conduct but at the time didn’t  understand that included social media, such as Facebook.

But in a letter to Mr Armstrong, a senior council officer called the comments  “seriously wilful conduct” that “may have damaged the reputation of the  council”.

Mr Armstrong was one of two new employees featured in a council bulletin in  2008. Under the headline “Council commits to youth – trainee and apprentice  appointed”, the council said Mr Armstrong and another employee were two  successful job candidates from more than 60 applications.

Hepburn Shire Acting CEO Evan King said the decision to sack Mr Armstrong was  made following due process. In a written statement he said: “The employee breached the code of conduct,  and based on an assessment of the seriousness of the breach, it was deemed the  employment of the employee should be terminated.”

Dave Beckley from the Australian Services Union said yesterday a case for  unfair dismissal of Mr Armstrong was being prepared for Fair Work  Australia.