If I am sacked for blogging, what are my rights?

Blogging may be growing exponentially, but it’s still a fairly young activity, and there haven’t been enough cases of blogging-related sackings to create a body of law for guidance on what employees’ legal rights are. As such, the thousands of UK bloggers who mention their work are something of an accident waiting to happen.

If you’re sacked over your blog but you believe you’ve been sticking to your employer’s policy or to an agreement you made with your employer about blogging, then you may have a stronger case for claiming unfair dismissal. This doesn’t automatically follow though if your employer deems your conduct to be bringing them into disrepute, or contributing to harassment or discrimination at work.

But even if there is no policy and you haven’t discussed blogging with your employer, that still doesn’t mean your employer automatically has the right to sack you over what you’ve put in your blog, and they will have to go through normal disciplinary procedures. Whatever the case, if you are sacked the best thing you can do is to contact your union immediately, or try to get initial legal advice from one of the sources on our free help page.