Does free speech end with employment status? An international discussion on free speech at work
Final Call for Papers
Abstract Submissions Due: 29 March 2024
This conference will be held on: 17 May 2024
Place: Dublin, Ireland
Promoted by the European Labour Law Journal and the International Association of Labour Law Journals
Sponsored by the School of Law & Criminology, Maynooth University (Ireland)
Submissions
Please submit abstracts of no more than 500 words to the organising committee by emailing David Mangan (david.mangan@mu.ie) by 29 March 2024.
Abstracts should contain the following:
1. Title of presentation (not included in the word count)
2. Name of presenter(s) (including affiliation) (not included in the word count)
3. A clear abstract which sets out a research question that addresses the conference topic, as well as a bibliographic list (this list is not included in the word count) of no more than 6 entries.
Please note that presenters will need to cover their own travel and accommodation in Dublin.
Conference Content
Innovations in information technologies offer unprecedented capacity for individual expression. These technologies give effect to the democratic idea of freedom of expression. And yet, social media (as one example of these technologies) are also fraught platforms for workers. The freedom to express online can be constrained in different ways. In common law jurisdictions, online speech may be limited by contracts of employment because contract clauses regarding social media use vest employers with wide discretion to assess these online comments. In civil law countries, the consequences of online activity can flow from dismissal protection rules such as breach of trust or behaviour harmful to the employer. Speech matters can also arise in these jurisdictions within the larger concept of mutually suitable behaviour in employment relationships. Do these consequences have a chilling effect on workers’ speech? How does labour law balance a right to free speech in a democracy with that same speech resulting in the loss of employment? To what extent do constitutional protections extend to workers’ speech online?
Freedom of expression is not singularly a worker issue. Information technology has also complicated this subject for employers, particularly those in knowledge or service industries. How do employers protect their businesses on these platforms? Employees in knowledge or service industries may take the initiative to promote themselves by using social media to give their opinions on current industry issues. How can an employer balance the worker’s freedom of speech while also protecting against disclosure of company information? To what extent do post-employment disclosure clauses circumvent free speech rights? How can employers prevent an online toxic workplace when members of the public make derogatory comments about employees?
A guiding question for papers presented at this conference is: how can the law facilitate the prima facie protection of employees’ free speech, while simultaneously balancing employers’ interests in carrying on their businesses?
Topics of particular interest include but are not limited to: technology and free speech at work; whistleblowing/protected disclosures; democracy, free speech, and the status of employment; free speech theories and workers’ expression; the toxic workplace; worker fidelity; social media influencers.
Publication
A selection of presented papers may be published in a special issue of the European Labour Law Journal (depending upon the Journal’s usual peer review process).
Sample Bibliographic List
This bibliography is not exhaustive. It represents the dominance of common law discussions in English. We welcome bibliographies in other languages so long as the presentation is in English, and translations of sources are provided (where needed).
András Koltay, “Social Media and Freedom of Speech in Employment: Limitations on Employees' Right to Self-Expression” in Tamás Gyulavári and Emanuele Menegatti (eds) Decent work in the digital age: European and Comparative Perspectives (Oxford: Hart/Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022).
Dominic McGoldrick, “The Limits of Freedom of Expression on Facebook and Social Networking Sites: A UK Perspective” (2013) 13 Human Rights Law Review 125.
David Mangan, “Online Speech and the Workplace: Public Right, Private Regulation” (2018) 39 Comparative Labor Law & Policy Journal 357.
Virginia Mantouvalou, “‘I Lost my Job Over a Facebook Post - Was that Fair?’ Discipline and Dismissal for Social Media Activity” (2019) 35 The International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations 101.
Tonia Novitz, “Regulating Workplace Technologies: Extending the Agenda” in Roger Brownsword, Eloise Scotford, Karen Yeung (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Law, Regulation and Technology (OUP 2016).
Jacob Rowbottom, “To Rant, Vent and Converse: Protecting Low Level Digital Speech” (2012) 71 Cambridge Law Journal 355.
Paul Wragg, “Free Speech Rights at Work: Resolving Differences between Practice and Liberal Principle” (2015) 44 Industrial Law Journal 1.