Employees Don’t have to be Dismissed for Abusing Boss on Facebook

Last year saw, ten fire fighters from Düsseldorf suspended for bad mouthing the boss on Facebook. (Read: Firefighters Suspended over Facebook Status).

A court in Hessen recently had to rule on whether employees should be fired from their jobs over Facebook posts that didn’t please their Bosses. The court ruled that although posting abusive content on social media against your boss might cost you your job, there can be exemptions where the employer is still forced to keep you in the company.

Wer seinen Arbeitgeber in sozialen Netzwerken wie Facebook grob beleidigt, muss mit einer fristlosen Kündigung rechnen. Ausnahmsweise kann der Arbeitgeber jedoch verpflichtet sein, einen Arbeitnehmer trotz eines entsprechenden Fehlverhaltens weiterzubeschäftigen. Das ist etwa dann der Fall, wenn der Beschäftigte schon seit Jahrzehnten im Betrieb mitarbeitet.

The ruling came after an employee was fired over a comment he posted about his boss in a Facebook group. The status which read: “Ich kotze gleich…So asoziale Gesellschafter gibt es wohl kaum ein zweites Mal” (I’m about to puke. There’s no other anti-social business such as this). The comment was made after there was an argument at work over the Tariff payments. When the employer found out about the post, he fired the employee who eventually took him to court.

The judge ruled that although the comment was abusive and would act as grounds for dismissal, this particular employee shouldn’t have been fired. The employee had worked for over 28years at the company; is disabled and had apologised over the incident.