Dismissed! Wrrongful? Facebook Issue! Please help!

[baskie2000]

I will do my best to explain what happened!

Firstly and foremost i will take you back to december 2011 when i was taken into the office about a comment i had written on facebook which i deleted just before i went into the office at my union reps order!
i was then accused of being a racist by my manager after explaining i am far from it! he said he didnt believe me ect.....
a few days later he calls me back into the office and after looking at the facts he decides to let me off with a warning, and tells me not to write anything on facebook again and that he has 'drawn a line in the sand'
after talking to my line manager he also says, dont put anything on facebook, be ever so careful! and i have!
about 9 weeks ago i get called into the office and there are my union reps, and manager and line manager. Cut a long sotry short they suspended me with full pay whilst investigating comments on facebook that bring royal mail into disrepute! (3 off us in total, 2 got sacked)
On the FFI i am confronted with 3 articles that are screen shots from my facebook acocunt dated

24th April 2011
Aug 2011
Sep 2011

(all of which were in my bosses posestion before he spoke to me in december 2011)

After 8 weeks of suspension and formal meeting ect i was dimissed. me and my union reps are annoyed as that i was spoken to in december with all the current evidence for my dimissal in his posestion and yet failed to raise them! He has waited until the change over was about to begin and decided to bring it up and get rid of 3 of us if he could (all 32hour contracts)
Basicaly he neglectied to raise the evidence he had before and simply said " i didnt know about this until now" which is bull to be honest.

Do i have a genuine case in appeal??? me and my unuion feel we do as he followed procedure in december and 'nipped it in the bud'
can he then go back and do me for GM after i have done nothing wrong since the meeting in december???

hope i kept it clear and relativly striaght forward!

Any feedback would be ideal!

Matt

[fishtank]

The obvious question is do you have any paperwork from the december reprimand and were there any witnesses?
You will have to show that your manager was aware of all of the facts at the time of making his previous decision.
That isn't going to be easy if he blatantly denies it and you have no proof or witnesses.
I assume that the offending comments were removed from your facebook page around the time of your december meeting.
If that's the case how did they suddenly come into his possession now?

[blackadder]

as fishbook says if you got the paperwork of december meeting then you got a case. if it was just a 'chat' then you have to fight your case again. never put anything involving r.m or whatever company you working for on facebook. to many spies on there and on here. and prospective employers will look at them too

[feduppostie]

ask to see the screenshots again with witnesses

right click on image and click properties

in the properties file it will tell you the date they were created ie before december or after and whether they have been modified

[pingu69]

'as fishbook says' Who's this fishbook...lol

[Lounge Lizard]

Best repeat the 'comment' on here so we can decide whether or not it was 'racist'.

[DGP1]

Best repeat the 'comment' on here so we can decide whether or not it was 'racist'.

Let's not, he's in enough trouble without us getting him into more

[toofpick]

Can't you say you were fraped. Wasn't me boss, was my friend mucking about with me phone!!

[baskie2000]

a union rep was present when I was spoken to in December! he heard the words said and will gladly testify!
the screen shots were cropped and photocopies! on one of the screen shots the comments were dated 'yesterday' obviously this means he got the screen shots the day after i uploaded the photo! if it was more recently it would just merely state the date in which comments were made ect. That’s how I know he’s at least if not all the screenshots since 8th September 2011!

As with regards to the comment I made in December, I was just amazed one evening while doing overtime in processing that I saw a black woman walking around working in the PHG locker. It suddenly dawned on me that she is the first black person I have seen working in the mail centre.(out of about 1,000+ people) I then said ‘that just goes to show how multi cultural we are down here!’ everyone is white! I was shocked when the penny dropped. So I was just facebooking my disgust at they way some people think down here in the westcountry. I am aware of some managers in royal mail are quite 'patriotic' and I wondered if that had something to do with the fact that only white people work were we do!

I am in no way racist, I was merely stating an observation I made that evening! but someone in my office misinterpreted my statement and ran and told my union rep, he then came up to me and said to remove it because although he knew it wasn’t racist some people (namely the first individual ) may read it wrong and think your being racist. I then deleted it but then the first individual had ran and told my line manager.

Obviosuly then when i spoke to my manager he said he found racisim 'unpaletable' then i asked what he had 'heard' was said. and what i said and then what my work collegue said were 2 completely different things. i then went on to explain i have many friends from all ethnic backgrounds and explained even my step mum is of mixed race, and assured him i wasnt racist. he then said he didnt believe me and that when i got a bit upset and just left.

the funny thing is the guy who went and told my boss i know isnt the most liberal person i know lol

anyway, hope this cleared up the issue, and yes i did have a witness when i was spoken to in december!

[baskie2000]

Can't you say you were fraped. Wasn't me boss, was my friend mucking about with me phone!!

there were 3 of us in question. 1 was in trouble becuase he liked a comment the 2nd individual wrote. he said that him and his wife share an account and that his wife clicked the like button. He didnt get the sack and recieved a 2 year serious!!

[Red Robbo]

Difficult one Baskie2000, we were only briefed some months ago about members of staff posting comments on Facebook, one of our guys was suspended because of comments made, however he was re - instated and given counselling on the subject, the brief we got went like this,Outside working hours:
All colleagues must take care when using the internet or electronic communications not to damage the Royal Mail Group or bring it into disrepute. They must not publish or transmit electronically any comments or other material about Royal Mail Group, its employees or agents, which is or may be of an inappropriate, unprofessional and/or offensive nature, or which may cause damage to colleagues or customer or public confidence in Royal Mail Group. This applies both when using Royal Mail Group systems and equipment and when using personal systems or equipment outside the office, and to use in both working and non working time.

Now were you or your colleagues briefed how not to behave on the Social Networks Sites ?

[POSTMAN]

Now were you or your colleagues briefed how not to behave on the Social Networks Sites ?

We've had this before and I 'think' Fish came up with something obscure,but the answer for 99.9% of us is NO.
Rem Fish?

[baskie2000]

Difficult one Baskie2000, we were only briefed some months ago about members of staff posting comments on Facebook, one of our guys was suspended because of comments made, however he was re - instated and given counselling on the subject, the brief we got went like this,Outside working hours:
All colleagues must take care when using the internet or electronic communications not to damage the Royal Mail Group or bring it into disrepute. They must not publish or transmit electronically any comments or other material about Royal Mail Group, its employees or agents, which is or may be of an inappropriate, unprofessional and/or offensive nature, or which may cause damage to colleagues or customer or public confidence in Royal Mail Group. This applies both when using Royal Mail Group systems and equipment and when using personal systems or equipment outside the office, and to use in both working and non working time.

Now were you or your colleagues briefed how not to behave on the Social Networks Sites ?

no never! and in the articles (evidence) they gave to us before our formal meeting they included a management internet data policy thing, of which no one had ever seen, even the interviewing manager! the thing was printed in early 2010 and no one had ever seen it!
the whole this is a joke.
Personally, i feel that my manager had been stalking a few people on facebook for a long time now gathering evidence so when the change over came and he needed to get rid of a few hours in the office he would then use said evidence against people and thus not needed to pay us the bonuses we were entitled to and redundancy moeny!

maybe im thin king to much into it but it seems that way!

[baskie2000]

do i have a strong case??

[Red Robbo]

do i have a strong case??

That is a million dollar question, what you need to do is appeal against the dismissal, submit an application to an ET remember you only have 90 days from the date of termination of contract minus one day. If you were not briefed about behaviour on Facebook then use it.