British Apple worker loses appeal for unfair dismissal:
Apple have own an unfair dismissal case in the UK.
A British tribunal has ruled that Samuel Crisp was not unfairly dismissed for criticising Apple’s products and his role working at the company.
Crisp was a specialist in the Norwich branch of the Apple store in the city, and had posted a series of rants about the company on Facebook and social networks.
He was apparently seen to complain and ridicule Apple on Facebook in particular, but Apple have a clearly defined role for staff using Social Media when related to their company, and they ban any criticism of their products or service by employees.
Apple’s decision to sack ruled “harsh” but not illegal:
So while the sacking was ruled “harsh” Apple was deemed to be within their rights to do this under the circumstances.
It is reported in EweekEurope that Crisp was hoping to get a move to the US as part of his career progression at Apple but had not been granted the role he had hoped for, bitterness ensued and this is what caused him to vent steam on Facebook about Apple in general.
Crisp had claimed in defence that his posts were private and not open to the public, Apple disputed this heavily.
“We take into account their position that the Facebook posts were not truly private and could in fact have been forwarded very easily with the claimant having no control over this process,”
With over 500,000,000 users on Facebook, many companies are now banning access to social networks and starting to define a clear social media policy that will help stop disgruntled employees from having stabs at them online and ruining corporate reputations.
Anthony Munns