Invisible Discrimination: Employers & Social Media Sites

With the advent and popularity of social networks sites, the boundaries of the relationship between the employer-employee/prospective employee have stretched well beyond the work-place and work-hours. Predictably, this relationship expansion has led to unchartered adversarial scenarios between the respective parties. Unfortunately, in this new, vibrant cyber world, traditional employment law considerations are struggling for deference and rumination. Notwithstanding this ostensible indifference, each phase of the relationship is heavily impacted by social network media. Applicant recruitment, information gathering and applicant selection stand to be impacted by the social network communications made by employees or prospective employees. This article examines whether present and proposed law protects employeesÕ and prospective employeesÕ rights from potential, unlawful discrimination resulting from the employerÕs use of social media in its applicant recruitment, information gathering and applicant selections processes.