Teacher fails in attempt to get job back after sacking

A DUNDEE teacher has failed in a bid to be reinstated after being sacked for gross misconduct.

Jill Gibson had launched tribunal proceedings against Dundee City Council claiming that she had been unfairly dismissed from her role as a support for learning teacher at Mill of Mains Primary School.

Ms Gibson, of Muirfield Crescent, had been dismissed from her role at the school after being found to have posted offensive messages about her workplace on Facebook.

She had also faced disciplinary action from the local authority for claiming time off work to care for her mother on days when her mum was at work in another school in the city.

Following her dismissal, Ms Gibson challenged the decision at an employment tribunal in Dundee.

In addition to a number of posts Ms Gibson made on social media which were thought to be disparaging to the school and its workers, the tribunal heard that Ms Gibson had phoned the school and left a message saying that she was taking two days’ leave to care for her mother who was ill.

However, after a deputy headteacher at the school grew suspicious and investigated the matter, she found that Ms Gibson’s mum had in fact attended Craigowl Primary School — where she was employed as a supply worker — on the days in question.

Ms Gibson argued that she had been “raging at the world” and that some of the Facebook posts in question related to her mother’s care in hospital rather than her own employment.

She also claimed that her mother’s timesheet, which showed she was at work on the days in question, had been filled out incorrectly by her father.

However, employment judge Ian McFatridge found that the council had followed the correct procedure in removing her from her role.

He said: “Given that (former education director Michael Wood) was justified in finding both that the claimant had made an inappropriate claim for carer’s leave and had made these inappropriate postings it is my view that the decision to dismiss was within t he range of reasonable responses.”

However, he added it was it was “hard not to have a degree of sympathy” for Ms Gibson due to the fact that her mother had been ill throughout the disciplinary process — and had subsequently passed away prior to the tribunal starting.