International Employment Lawyer
Premier League football club Arsenal is being sued by a former kitman who claims he was fired for expressing support for Palestine on social media.
While employers are able to punish inappropriate public statements, they would do well have well-drafted social media and communications policies first, says Littler’s Chris Coombes.
“This comes with the very healthy caveat that employers will need to carefully consider whether the statement in question is an expression of a protected belief; where it is, the employer will need to ensure they are acting proportionately in order to avoid discriminating against the employee on the grounds of their belief,” he tells IEL.
“This would require the employer to consider the manner in which the belief has been expressed – including the extent to which it is objectionable, harasses, or causes offence to others, such that the expression of the belief can be separated from the belief itself – and also alternatives to the disciplinary action in question.”
An employer’s ability to intervene depends on whether the employee’s actions can be linked back to the employer, as well as “any actual reputational damage caused – as opposed to threatened or anticipated damage – and whether it was the manner in which the political activities were conducted that was so objectionable, as opposed to the political belief itself,” Coombes explains.
“A common issue we see in this area is employers trying to take disciplinary action against employees where it is unclear exactly how they have acted in breach of company policy – an express social media policy helps to mitigate against that risk,” he adds.
