Anyone who’s worked in a local authority will know about posts which are “politically restricted by way of remuneration”. If you’re wanting to know the finer points of what this means, here’s Darlington Coucil’s guidance on the subject. However, in short, it means that people in certain roles and above a certain pay grade at a council cannot, under any circumstances, get involved in any political activity. There are also restrictions on any council worker doing certain things, particular around the clause of “bringing the council into disrepute” and being “fit for public office”.
There are many arguments for and against having these restrictions and I don’t really want to open the vast can of worms that those debates would involve. Additionally, I don’t want to go over the whole “your employer, the council, might search for you on google” debate, which has been done to death. However, having read a recent article re-posted on Twitter by community development consultant Mike Chitty, I did have to think about how this could apply to social media.
The article, from Montana in the United States, revolves around a City Council asking job applicants to submit usernames and passwords for all their social media sites as part of the job application. They’ve taken legal advice on this and apparently they can do this.
This is an extreme example of councils probing into people’s private lives. The legal implications of asking people for passwords which, as the article points out, they are bound not to give you by the terms of service, probably means this won’t go any further. However, I doubt it’s the end of the social media fit for office debate.
Currently, most public bodies I’ve experienced ask you, on application, for the following information:
- To declare any criminal charges or, if relevant, any accusations that have been made against you
- Submit to a CRB Disclosure (police check)
- To declare (and normally to cease) any business interests you have
- To declare any membership organisation you belong to (such as the freemasons)
- To declare (and if applicable cease) any political office you may be involved in
So, would it be that surprising if they started asking you for lists of your online presence? Do you have a website, are you a member of facebook , what does your LinkedIn history say about you?
There’s always that argument that if you’ve done nothing wrong, you’ve nothing to hide, but the fit for office argument gets tricky here. What if you’re a member of the facebook group “I was born in the UK so why don’t I have as many rights as immigrants“. To some, this is a legitimate, humanitarian debate. To others it is a political, right wing, cause. To others still it is an unfounded, racist and prejudicial statement. If you went to a physical rally around this subject it would be quite easy to determine if it was political or not, based on who had organised it. You’d be able to judge the tone of the rally and decide if your presence brought the council into disrepute. However, on a facebook group it isn’t quite so simple.
The standards board ruled some time ago that a politician who posted arguably racist comments on a facebook page had not violated standards because it was a personal account. So where does this leave public bodies?
Looking back at the guidance from Darlington Council, I note that even politically restricted persons can display a political badge on their person or vehicle…so what about on their facebook account? What if they also conduct some council business over facebook?
The answers to this, sadly, are policy and guidance. Applicants, staff and political members need to be clear about what they can and can’t do politically via social media – otherwise we’ll end up with job application forms asking the questions that they do in Montana.
As someone who both worked in local government and was politically active, at the time the restrictions were introduced, I know that the restrictions apply to holding office in a political party and standing for election. The leader of a neighbouring council was employed by the council I worked for at the time of the introduction of restrictions, and he was allowed to move to a more junior post on (I think) a protected salary. I think that was pretty much against the spirit of the restrictions (not that I necessarily agree they are a good thing)
I’m employed in a politically restricted post and at times find that quite difficult. As someone with strong views and opinions, I do feel that my wings have been clipped. If I mentioned what political direction those views went in, technically I could be held to have breached the restrictions!
Under the Widdicombe rules senior officers are barred from standing for election, political campaigning, writing or speaking in a manner which could affect the standing of a political party or holding office within a party.
Understanding of what counts for “political campaigning, writing or speaking in a manner which could affect the standing of a political party” has been varied. In general we’re advised to air on the side of caution and withdraw from any such activity. Perfectly harmless, low key campaigning for human rights, for example, could be interpreted as conferring support for one party position’s on that issue over another.
In practice these rules stop you being able to participate in the democratic process at any level. We are effectively silenced.
Despite my background, my view on taking up my first such post in 2002 was very much c’est la vie. An annoyance and irritation but the price you have to pay if you wish to progress a career in local government. I’ve been OK with that generally. I understand how I need to maintain neutrality and be apolitical in the performance of my professional duties.
I do however still think this is a great shame. We live in an age where politics is increasingly marginalised and where we are actively seeking new ways of engagement yet we exclude a large number of people from participation who would have a strong contribution to make.
As for the use of social media my own experience has been that it can at times be difficult. I’ve had some great exchanges on Twitter during #bbcqt and with @cllrtim and others, but on more than one occasion I’ve had to delete a part written tweet and sit on my hands to avoid ‘crossing the line’.
As more people begin to use social media I suspect we will see this challenged. There will inevitably continue to be headlines about officials being dismissed because of ‘that evil Face Book and Twitter’ – the Daily Mail & Express seem to love this stuff – but as the social tech fulcrum moves and we develop a maturity towards and understanding of these issues, the mist of uncertainty will lift and common sense will prevail.
We may even see the rules on standing for office scrapped and then who knows what the future will hold for many of us!?
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