Facebook - a bit of fun or a career limiting mistake?

23/06/2011

By Nick Hobden, Partner and Head of Employment

We recently reported on the case of Gosden v Lifeline Project Ltd, which involved an employee who had sent inappropriate and offensive emails. Continuing the theme, we thought that we would bring to your attention the recent case of Preece v JD Wetherspoons plc (2010), where an employee was dismissed for making inappropriate comments on Facebook.

The facts

Miss Preece was the manager of a pub in the Wetherspoons chain. In the course of her employment, she asked some customers to leave the pub after they had allegedly been abusive and threatening. However Miss Preece then proceeded to refer to the incident in an apparently jocular manner, when posting comments on her Facebook page during work time. The daughter of one of the customers involved in the altercation complained about the postings, describing them as offensive and taking exception to the fact that the comments were made so publically.

Miss Preece was invited to a disciplinary hearing, at which she argued that she had made the comments whilst angry and upset. She also argued that she had not realised that they could be so widely viewed. But Wetherspoons did not accept her arguments. Instead, they dismissed her for gross misconduct, pointing to clearly documented policies regarding the use of emails, internet and the like, including Facebook. The company concluded that the remarks made by Miss Preece had the effect of lowering the company's reputation, such that there had been a breakdown in trust and confidence between Wetherspoons and the employee.

After an unsuccessful appeal, Miss Preece commenced unfair dismissal proceedings.

The decision

Dismissing her claim, the Employment Tribunal found that the decision to dismiss Miss Preece was within the band of reasonable responses open to her employer. Wetherspoons had indentified the alleged misconduct, investigated the matter and reached genuinely held conclusions regarding her guilt. As a result the dismissal was, in all the circumstances, held to be fair.

Comment

It was important in this case that Wetherspoons had quite detailed policies covering the use of Facebook and other similar websites, as well as email and the internet more generally. They also clearly documented the potential disciplinary sanctions, should employees break the company's rules.

Interestingly, the ET indicated that it would probably have issued Miss Preece with a final written warning if it had been responsible for making the disciplinary decision. However it acknowledged that its job was to decide whether the employer had acted reasonably, not whether it would necessarily have done the same thing if it had been in the employer's shoes.