{"id":21,"date":"2014-12-03T22:20:24","date_gmt":"2014-12-03T22:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helencarter.com.au\/?p=21"},"modified":"2024-08-17T17:40:32","modified_gmt":"2024-08-17T07:40:32","slug":"david-pocock-and-the-aru-when-do-employers-cross-the-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/?p=21","title":{"rendered":"David Pocock and the ARU. When do employers cross the line?"},"content":{"rendered":"

David Pocock is the latest example<\/a> of a football player who has been sanctioned by their employer for what the code or employer consider undesirable behaviour outside of work. \u00a0 But in this case it is not recreational drugs<\/a>, drinking<\/a>\u00a0or sexual indiscretion, violence against women<\/a>, or (most exotically) the bubbler…..<\/a>\u00a0 This time Pocock has been given a written warning for his involvement in a political protest. \u00a0Read Pocock’s official statement here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pocock was arrested, and his actions were allegedly in breach of the ARU and Brumbies code of conduct. \u00a0However sanctioning players for involvement in political protest steps dangerously close to sanctioning them for their political beliefs or activity. \u00a0Australian society elevates football players to the role of saints – and football codes face such fierce competition from each other that they will sanction players for anything which brings the codes into disrepute. \u00a0However we mustn’t forget that despite the public and code’s desire to see them as perfect, they are legally no\u00a0more than parties to an employment contract, and the football leagues have no greater right to impose standards of conduct on their employees than any other employer. \u00a0Have they gone too far this time? \u00a0Personally, I believe it is reasonably within the employers’ rights to sanction employees that bring their game or brand into genuine disrepute. \u00a0 This is beyond question when we are talking about violence, drunkeness or depravity. \u00a0But when the allegedly disreputable behaviour is a matter of political or environmental debate, the swiftness of the ARU’s actions seem knee jerk and poorly motivated.<\/p>\n

During the same week, the St Louis Rams reacted quite differently to<\/a>\u00a0calls for an apology from police groups on behalf of players performing the “hands up don’t shoot” protest relating to the Michael Brown controversy immediately before a game.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Photo courtesy of USA Today<\/p><\/div>\n

In their official view, while any offence \u00a0caused to the police by the players’ actions was regrettable, it was part of the players’ free rights of expression protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution. \u00a0The fact that the employers had provided the platform on which the protest was public made little difference to the players’ fundamental rights.\u00a0 \u00a0The Michael Brown situation in the USA is highly charged both politically and emotionally – yet the Rams seem to have handled this public relations challenge without appearing to take sides, nor to encroach on their employees’ rights. We have heard much about the US Constitution’s First Ammendment restraining the Executive government from action in relation to a citizen’s exercise of free speech, but it is interesting to see this constitutional freedom trumping a contractual employment relationship as well.<\/p>\n

I can understand the necessity for a strict code of conduct for professional sports players, but exactly how narrow should the scope of this conduct be? \u00a0And is this further indication that Australians need some fundamental rights to sit alongside the agreements we make from day to day?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David Pocock is the latest example of a football player who has been sanctioned by their employer for what the code or employer consider undesirable behaviour outside of work. \u00a0 But in this case it is not recreational drugs, drinking\u00a0or sexual indiscretion, violence against women, or (most exotically) the bubbler…..\u00a0 This time Pocock has been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[236],"tags":[41,43,42],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":363,"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21\/revisions\/363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workn.net.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}