All Employees Have The 'Right To Vent': Madras HC
Employees cannot be denied the freedom to vent and voice their problems in public, according to the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court.
A Lakshminarayanan, a Group B office assistant at Tamil Nadu Grama Bank in Thoothukudi, filed the petition. Lakshminarayanan had posted a message on a WhatsApp group criticizing his bosses. As a result, he received a memo and was on the verge of being dismissed.
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, on the other hand, observed that it is natural for employees to have disagreements with their coworkers, superiors, or even their employers; and that it is a good practice for organisations to allow their employees to express their issues or grievances, as this will only help them vent. According to the Bench, allowing employees to vent is not harmful to the organisation as long as it does not ruin their reputation in any manner.
In this particular situation, because Lakshminarayanan did not make his comments public, it could not be called misbehavior. He had simply "vented" within a secret space that he had created. He couldn't be 'thought-policed' because the Group clearly had limited access. In addition, Lakshminarayanan is a member of the Tamil Nadu Grama Bank Workers Union.
The employee may have been charged with misconduct if the interaction had occurred in a public area or on a platform that anyone could access, according to the Bench. The Bench also noted that groups, like people, have privacy rights. As a result, if employers plant a mole to gather information on workplace groups, this could be considered an unfair labor practice.
