Facebooking prison officers face sack for bagging boss

Photo / Richard Robinson

Six Australian prison officers have been threatened with the sack after they bagged their boss on Facebook.

The prison officers were told they would be sacked for posting derogatory comments about New South Wales Corrective Services Commissioner Ron Woodham on a Facebook page titled "Suggestions to help Big Ron save a few clams", the Public Service Association (PSA) confirmed.

The page was set up in October last year when prison officers decided to vent their anger over Government plans to privatise two of the state's prisons , PSA spokesman Stewart Little told AAP.

In April the officers who set up the page, dubbed the Facebook Five, were issued with letters from the Department of Corrective Services threatening to terminate their employment.

The PSA responded by filing an application with the NSW Industrial Relations Commission (IRC) to hear an unfair dismissal application for the workers before they were formally fired.

"I suppose if they were said face to face they would be considered quite offensive," Mr Little said of the comments made about Commissioner Woodham and other senior Corrective Services officials on the Facebook page.

"We are concerned about what people say but what we're saying is if they are saying it after hours in the privacy of their homes, well that's really where it should be left.

"None of these comments were put directly to the people who were a subject of the comments.

"Really, we are trying to see how it should constitute misconduct."

The PSA made its submission to the IRC yesterday and the matter is continuing.

Today Justice Frank Marks told a hearing he had some concerns about the way the investigation into the officers was handled.

"I am concerned about the significant issue of the lack of procedural fairness or rule of natural justice," he said.

The Department has agreed to have a third party re-investigate the case.

- NZ HERALD STAFF