Sacked for a Facebook 'like' but wins £32k at tribunal

Alan Blue, a 51-year-old former meat hygiene inspector from Lanarkshire, has been awarded £32,799.13 by an employment tribunal. He had been sacked from his job at Wishaw Abattoir by the Food Standards Agency over a typo and an inadvertent 'like' posted on Facebook last year.

The Daily Record reported that the incident unfolded after he was checking Facebook on his phone and learned that a number of employees at the abattoir had been sacked. He expressed his condolences to one, which was followed by a comment from another employee that someone had hit one of the managers with a hard hat. Blue had meant to respond with 'Aye right u wish' but had accidentally typed 'Aye right i wish'. At the time he simply didn't spot his mistake.

The conversation continued and another sacked employee referred to hitting the manager over the head with a chair. Blue ticked the "like" box.' He told The Mirror: "I found it kind of humorous, I didn't think for a minute that he actually meant it and I never wanted anybody to get hurt."

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The Mirror reported that two weeks later Blue was approached by a manager, who said there had been a complaint. The Food Standards Agency launched a disciplinary investigation, said there had been a breakdown in trust and confidence between the agency and Blue, and sacked him.

He told the Mirror: "It was a private conversation between friends. I thought it was just the same as having a chat down the pub but somebody then showed it to the manager. I couldn't believe that I had been sacked after 20 years' service for a stupid conversation on Facebook."

Blue insisted it was just banter, and now the tribunal has agreed. According to the Daily Mail, the judge said: "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."

Blue was awarded £32,799.13 for unfair dismissal. He told the Daily Record that the just wanted his job back.

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Sacked because of Facebook
Blue is not alone in being sacked because of something he posted on Facebook. In February this year Natasha Shields, a 26-year-old mum from Newcastle, was sacked from her job at The Money Shop after she took a photo of a footballer using the shop to send funds home to Senegal. She sent it to her partner, who put it on Facebook. The company insisted that revealing transactions on the premises was against company policy, and fired her.

Back in 2009 a Swiss insurance worker called into work to say she was ill and couldn't sit in front a computer because she needed to lie down in the dark. Her employer then saw she was active on Facebook during the day and fired her.

In 2008 13 Virgin Atlantic cabin crew were sacked for criticising the airline and calling its passengers chavs.

But one of the most impressively self-sabotaging moves was the woman - only known as Lindsay - who in 2009 posted on Facebook: "'My boss is always making me do s*** stuff just to p*** me off!!" Unfortunately she had forgotten that she was friends with him on the site.

He replied "Hi Lindsay, I guess you forgot about adding me on here? He then added: "That 's*** stuff ' is called your 'job', you know, what I pay you to do. And lastly, you also seem to have forgotten that you have two weeks left on your six-month trial period. Don't bother coming in tomorrow."

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