Our employers must not police our opinions
Most people who work will have a contract that allows employers to dismiss them under certain circumstances: incompetence, negligence, misconduct. But how far does that right extend? If the example of an Asda employee this week is anything to go by, too far.
Till worker Brian Leach was reportedly sacked by the supermarket chain after he shared a video of a sketch by comedian Billy Connolly on his personal Facebook page.
Leach was said to have been dismissed after a colleague complained that comments in the skit – which takes aim at all religions – were antiIslamic. Leach said he was called into a disciplinary meeting and dismissed without notice for violating Asda’s social media policy. Asda refused to comment beyond saying it does “not tolerate any form of discrimination from colleagues or customers and take such behaviour extremely seriously”.
So, which was it? Violating the company’s social media policy or discriminating against a colleague? Or, as others have reported, bringing the company’s reputation into disrepute?
If one of the above, Leach would be right to feel confused. Legal precedent suggests Leach may have a freedom of expression case against Asda: a judge ruled in 2012 that an employee of a housing trust, who was a practising Christian, was unfairly dismissed after he expressed his opposition to gay marriage on his own Facebook page.
However, the fact that Asda dismissed Leach is profoundly disturbing and the latest in a growing number of incidents in which employers appear to vastly overstep their rights both in the protection of
their own reputation, and in their efforts to protect others.
The trend smacks of dangerous overreach, not least because few companies have highly detailed policies that set out precisely what is meant by damage to a company’s reputation nor discriminatory behaviour – giving them huge leeway to sack or curtail the activities of employees on all sorts of pretexts.
Is it OK for employees to be highly, publicly and personally critical of other people’s political beliefs on their social media pages, for example, but not for them to satirise religion? Can they rubbish sporting opponents but not fashion taste or food choices? What are the lines?
The net result is that companies have increasing power to set not just standards for discourse within the company, but the tone of political debate outside it, too. The case of Maya Forstater, a tax researcher who is taking her employer to court after she was fired for tweeting concerns about the UK’s gender recognition proposals, and a former Cricket Australia employee sacked for campaigning for improved abortion rights, are cases in point.
If people self-censor out of fear of the reactions of employers or colleagues, that’s unhealthy for society, unhealthy for democracy, and unhealthy for business. Instead, employers need to learn how to navigate this brave new world and stop policing the opinions of employees.
Jodie Ginsberg is CEO of Index on Censorship FOLLOW Jodie Ginsberg on Twitter @jodieginsberg;
at telegraph.co.uk/opinion