Are you guilty for posting those ‘going to be a long day’ and ‘I hate work’ posts on your pages? Recently, there has been a decision made which has involved dismissal for gross misconduct due to social media posts.
The background to the case is that the Claimant had shift patterns which meant that they were on occasion, on standby. When the employee is on a standby shift, the company stated that they were prohibited from consuming alcohol, then they could go to work if they were called.
In 2011, the Claimant posted on Facebook (“on standby tonight, so only going to get half p*ssed lol”) insinuating that he’d been drinking alcohol whilst he was on standby. In 2012, HR were made aware of the comment, but no action was taken against the Claimant.
In May 2013 there was a mediation held (after many grievances were raised by the Claimant) which was to try and resolve all the Claimants issues – instead of these issues being resolved, the Claimant was suspended and an investigation opened into his Facebook comments.
Some of the comments which were found, showed that the Claimant discussed his work and supervisors, these included:
- “Hard to sleep when the joys of another week at work are looming NOT”
- “Why are gaffers such pr**ks, is there some kind of book teaching them to be total w***ers.”
During investigation, the comment about the Claimant drinking whilst on standby came to light once again: the Claimant was then dismissed for gross misconduct in relation to this.
The Claimant then claimed that he had been dismissed unfairly and the Employment Tribunal agreed on the terms that; some matters are exaggerate on social media and this should be taken into account, and that the company had known about the comments for some time, but not acted on them. The Tribunal also stated that as the Claimant was not called upon whilst drunk on standby, this should have been taken into account.
The company did not agree with this decision and appealed.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal disagreed with the Employment Tribunal’s decision and agreed that the Claimant should have been dismissed.
Even if you’ve made comments in the past, they can still be used against you further down the line – so don’t risk it, is ‘moaning’ on social media really worth it?