LinkedIn Account Ownership

[Alexh1986]

Good Afternoon all,

Im looking for some advice regarding an ongoing dispute between myself and my ex employer. My employer was a recruitment agency, and during the course of my employment they paid for an upgraded linkedin account. When I was let go from the position, they asked me to hand over the password to my personal LinkedIn account.

I have declined this request, on grounds it’s against LinkedIn user agreement to share passwords/transfer ownership of accounts etc. They are making the case that the information that I received via the LinkedIn recruiter account is their intellectual property, and have refused to process my final pay until I hand over my password. For context, I have only worked for them for 1 year, and I’ve had my LinkedIn account for 10 years.

If this were to go to court, any ideas how a judge would view this please?

[ULA]

I am not sure there is any employment law that covers your employer's issue so will try and look at this from a practical perspective.

Your LinkedIn account, from my understanding, is your personal account and no they should not be asking for access to it.

Does the company have any policy that refers/covers anything like this?

I presume that they are no longer paying for the upgrade to your account?

Is there any relevant data that you have had as part of the recruiter upgraded account that you can download onto a format that you can provide them so they are not losing out on any data?

When is/was your final salary due? On your side however there is employment law as potentially not paying you would be considered an unlawful deduction of wages for which you could start an employment tribunal claim with the first stage being early conciliation via ACAS