Reminder on Facebook page conduct

WAPOU would like to remind members to take care when commenting on posts on our Facebook page, which is a public forum and can be viewed by anyone.

To assist with this, we have compiled some examples of the sort of offensive or violent language that is not acceptable to post on social media:

• Hateful or discriminatory comments regarding race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation or political beliefs
• Links or comments containing sexually explicit content material
• Violations of copyright or intellectual property rights
• Spam, link baiting or files containing viruses that could damage the operation of other people’s computers or mobile devices
• Attacks on specific groups or any comments meant to harass, threaten or abuse an individual or group
• Attacks on the Union, its elected representatives, its staff, or its members.

Comments or posts to the Facebook page that fall into any of the above categories, are likely to be hidden, deleted, or lead the commenter being banned from the page.

In addition, we encourage our members to make sure comments are consistent with the Department of Justice Code of Conduct:

“We do not, unless authorised to do so as part of our official duties or by the employer, publicly comment, either orally or in writing, on any administrative action, or on the administration of the Department or any other public sector organisation. We adhere to any legal requirements, policies and all other lawful directives regarding communication with Parliament, Ministers, ministerial staff, lobbyists, the media and members of the public. We maintain our right as members of the community to make public comment or enter in public debate on political and social issues, but our views, which includes providing information or comment to any media, social media, electronic, print or otherwise should not be linked in any way to our employment as a public sector employee with the Department. We ensure that our comments are not seen or perceived to be an official comment.”