If consultants feign illness, but it later emerges on social media that their previous night’s exploits have left them nursing a hangover, lawyers warn agency bosses can use this evidence to take disciplinary action against them.

However, Peter Wright, solicitor and managing director at law firm DigitalLawUK, told Recruiter potential action would depend on how agency bosses had come by the offending evidence.

He explained that while evidence publicly available on sites such as Facebook or Twitter can be used against the employee, evidence gathered from private messaging via Snapchat or WhatsApp would be more problematic, as this evidence would have been gleaned from private messages.

Wright also adds that disciplinary procedures can only be brought depending on what is in the worker’s contract.

Jacqueline McDermott, consultant solicitor at law firm Keystone Law, agrees. She told Recruiter if agency bosses have evidence supporting their view that their consultants are ‘taking a sickie’, then they can start disciplinary proceedings, but they will still need to go through the correct processes.

“If they post on Facebook ‘if England win tonight, I’m not going to work tomorrow – I’ll be too hungover’ and then they ring up and say ‘I’ve got a cold’ or ‘I’ve done my back in’, then it might be worthy of investigation and potentially disciplinary proceedings. But you would obviously have to have a meeting and allow the employee to give a good account of themselves.

“If the employees are all aware of the policy and know it’s wrongdoing, then clearly it is potentially a disciplinary matter.”

However, David Israel, partner in the employment team at law firm Royds Withy King, recommends agency bosses speak to their consultants ahead of tonight’s game to avoid problems further down the line.

“Sometimes allowing a bit of latitude, say allowing late requests for holidays or allowing people to make up time at a later date, may actually buy you more loyalty rather than having to sort out potential problems tomorrow,” he told Recruiter.

The lawyers’ warning comes on the day a poll of 2,000 Brits commissioned by comms company Centropy showed one in 10 Brits plan to pull a sickie if England win against Colombia tonight.

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