Should Employers Tell You How To Vote In The Same-Sex Marriage Survey?

Earlier this week, a teenager working in Canberra was fired from her job for posting that she will vote No in the same sex marriage survey. And I’ve had a number of people tell me, on condition of anonymity and through their social media accounts, that their employers are pushing a strong view on how staff should vote.

Putting aside the obvious emotion regarding the same sex marriage postal vote, should employers be allowed to coerce you to vote in a particular way or fire you for your views?

The case in Adelaide highlights one of the challenges of this sort of vote. Typically, in formal elevations our ballots are carried out in private. We visit a polling place, walk past a bunch of people handing put “How to Vote” cards and cast our ballot.

But this survey has almost every person acting as an advocate for one side or the other.

So what do you think? Is it right for employers to coerce employees to vote in a particular way? Should employers be allowed to fire people over their views? Where does it stop? Will Labor voters be allowed to fire conservatively-leaning staff if they make their views known?

What do you think?


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