Employee dismissed over Facebook “like” wins case

Employee dismissed over Facebook “like” wins case


A meat hygiene inspector who was sacked from his job at Wishaw Abattoir over comments made on Facebook has won his claim for unfair dismissal.

Alan Blue, 51, was dismissed after “liking” a Facebook post that appeared to encourage violent behaviour towards a manager.

Mr Blue said, “I was at home watching the telly and went on to Facebook on my phone.

“I saw one of the guys from the abattoir put on that he was gutted he’d been sacked.

“I hadn’t heard anything so I replied saying, ‘Sorry to hear that, hope you find something’. He then said one of the other slaughter men, Willie, had also been sacked.

“Then Willie joined in and said something daft that someone had hit one of the managers with his hard hat and I meant to put in ‘Aye right, u wish” and I hit the ‘i’ button by mistake, so it came up ‘Aye right, I wish”, which was a genuine typo.

“I never noticed at the time and the conversation went on and one of the guys said, ‘I should’ve just f*****ed him over the head with a chair’ and I ticked the ‘like’ box”.

Subsequently Mr Blue was approached by his manager regarding the Facebook post, suggesting there’d been a complaint.

Mr Blue’s employer, the Food Standards Agency, launched a disciplinary investigation and subsequently fired Mr Blue alleging the Facebook posts were a “breach of trust” and “not professional”.

Following a claim from Mr Blue, an employment tribunal found in his favour stating:

“There was no objective reason to believe that his performance would in the future be different simply because of his foolish participation in what he had mistakenly believed to be a private online conversation that had become more public.”