A Tauranga childcare centre manager was justifiably sacked for ‘liking' a derogatory Facebook post about her employer, according to the Employment Relations Authority.

Rachel Blylevens was dismissed by her employer, Kidicorp, in May after working as the centre manager of Topkids Waihi Road Centre in Tauranga for two and a half years, reports Fairfax.

Topkids Waihi Road Centre.

On April 9, Kidicorp received written complaints about Rachel from eight of the 11 staff working under her at the centre, prompting Kidicorp to start an investigation.

Blylevens engaged an advocate, Rachel Rolston, to help her through the process and went on sick leave until May 5.

On May 2, Rolston made a Facebook post on her advocate business page headed ‘Kidicorp Strikes Again'.

Rolston claimed Kidicorp was 'removing unwanted staff”, by 'allegations of bullying” involving 'trumped up charges, tampered with or totally fake documents, refusal to allow a target to have a support person".

Blylevens liked the post and commented on it by saying 'Interesting article pep! As a parent looking at childcare it's good to be informed x".

"Pep" was a nickname for her daughter, who she wanted to alert to the post, says Blylevens.

Rolston made a further post on May 4 about the first article that said 'If there is employment/legal issues going on then that's a place for the courtroom”.

She went on to say Kidicorp created a 'toxic” environment and questioned the care children receive by saying 'there must be an adverse effect” on them. She also accused Kidicorp of 'corporate bullying”.

Blylevens also liked this post.

ERA member Rachel Larmer says liking the post meant all of her Facebook friends, including the work colleagues who complained about her and some of the parents of children at the centre, would see it on her news feed and it had a potentially unlimited audience.

"Given the nature of Facebook, Blylevens had no control over which of her friends might chose to share the articles with their friends and in turn, their friends, hence exposing the original posts to a potentially unlimited audience."

Blylevens argues she was not endorsing the post by liking it, rather she just wanted to show her daughter it and get notifications when people commented on it.

But Larmer says liking it did endorse the post and dismissed the other claims as there were other ways to share it with her daughter and to keep track of who was commenting on it.

Kidicorp started disciplinary proceedings for liking the Facebook posts, separate to the original investigation about the staff complaints.

The company found Blylevens' actions breached its Media Relations and Social Networking Policy to the point where it lost trust and confidence her to act appropriately and responsibly in her role, so it had to dismiss her.

Larmer says those conclusions were open to a fair and reasonable employer in all the circumstances.

Blylevens also appeared to have adopted an arrogant attitude during the disciplinary meeting when asked by Kidicorp to remove her Facebook likes and comment.

Blylevens sat there in agreement while Rolston told Kidicorp it had to 'ask her nicely” by saying 'please” to get the posts removed, says Larmer.