Google Terminates Blogger?

CNET reports that Google has terminated the services of its employee who blogged about his impressions of his new employer. The employee was only on the job for 11 days.  The article goes on to say that under the law in some States (so-called at-will employment laws where the employee can be fired at will or for no reason), the employees are particularly vulnerable to termination for not protecting the employer’s public image. 

It seems to me that there are no similar laws in the Philippines.  Under our Labor Code, an employee can only be terminated for cause which does not (in my opinion) include publicizing embarrassing facts about your employer.  After all, the law on privacy in this country is still in its infancy and employees can argue that the employer has no right to privacy — especially in situations where the employer is not a real person (i.e., a corporation or partnership).

The best advice I can give to an employer would be to have an explicit employee policy requiring all employees to protect the good image of the company and to keep confidential all aspects of their employment. This way, each termination will have some arguable legal basis.

But even without the policy or if there is some doubt as to firing the employee, the employer may look into filing a criminal case for libel or a civil suit for the commission of a tort.  In any case, the employer is not without recourse.

From a blogger’s point of view, he can protect himself through anonymity (i.e., on-line anonymizing tools) or making sure that his statements are not libelous.  Still, if the blog entries are embarrassing to the employer (such that it can prove it sustained some injury - to its reputation for example) , it may have a cause of action under tort.  Under the circumstances, anonymity might be the way to go.

As blogging takes greater hold in this country, I believe these issues will soon come before our courts.  Let’s see how it turns out.