Facebook wall post cost teenager her job

Waitress Stephanie Panner, 19, is taking her employer to court after she was fired when another colleague posted a critical comment about their employer on her Facebook wall.

The waiter had posted a comment on Stephanie’s page when she was not even on the social networking site and never saw the message before getting a call from her boss to say she had been sacked. A third waiter who had seen the message and clicked “Like” was also fired by the firm in the Austrian capital Vienna.

Austrian Chamber of Commerce spokesman Thomas Angerer said: “Internet related dismissals are increasingly common. In this case the young woman worked for a catering firm that had several high profile clients and the manager felt it was a betrayal of trust. But in the case of the young waitress who never even saw a message we certainly feel that the dismissal was not legal or fair.”

The three had been employed to work by the catering firm at the Vienna Hotel Strudlhof.

Facebook allows users to vary their privacy settings to allow various degrees of access to write or post messages and links on their pages which they think might be of interest.

Stephanie was caught out when her pal posted the note on her wall for her to comment on – unaware that it would later be seen by their employer.