Unfair dismissal of train driver

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A train driver who engaged in racially charged posts on Twitter ruled to be unfairly dismissed

*This article contains references to derogatory slurs and offensive language*

Mr Paul Weller started his role with First MTR South Western Trains Limited (‘the Respondent’) in June 2008, initially as a train guard before qualifying as a train driver in 2011. Up until the events that resulted in the case, he had an unblemished employment record, received a number of employee awards and commendations and was a popular colleague in general.

Unfair dismissal of train driver

In around 2009, Mr Weller opened a Twitter account in which he used his own profile photo and had tweeted over 3700 times, generally posting about him lifting weights until, latterly, he shifted his focus on his opinions of Brexit and immigration.

In 2018, all drivers were issued a work tablet on harassment and social media these policies included the following:

On Social Media: “Social Media can pose a risk of …harassment and/or discrimination against employees or third parties. Social Media includes online social forums such as Twitter. For further information on the use of social media please refer to the company social media policy.”
On Harassment: “Harassment will amount to discrimination if it relates to a ‘relevant protected characteristic’ Specifically it is unlawful if it relates to : …. Race, which includes….nationality, ethnic or national origins…Religion or religious beliefs. Types of behaviour that may amount to unlawful harassment include unwanted conduct that …creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that person.” Practical examples include calling someone a nickname linked to their …. nationality”

Mr Weller signed some of these documents on 13^th November 2018 when he received his work tablet, however it was found that the “critical” ‘Record of Briefing’ document was left unsigned.

In the Tribunal’s eyes, this showed that the Respondent had a policy and procedure of briefing employees and obtaining signatures as a record, it also suggested that Mr Weller had not been briefed, nor had he agreed to the Respondent’s social media policy.

From around November 2019, Mr Weller began to regularly engage in offensive, insulting, discriminatory and racially charged tweets. These included, but were not limited to the following:

On 29 November 2019, Mr Weller re-tweeted a post from a third party saying “I want my country back, I don’t want any more immigrants, I don’t want any more diversity or multi-culturalism I’ve had enough of it I don’t want the ideology of Islam I don’t want halal slaughter I don’t want burkhas everywhere I want to hear the English language.”
In December 2019, Mr Weller re-tweeted a cartoon of the grim reaper carrying an axe marked ‘Islam’ and, passing doors with Arabic country names and showing blood emerging from beneath each door; the figure was in the process of opening a door marked India. It was accompanied by the statement ‘Keep them out’.
In February 2020, Mr Weller tweeted; “I am so pleased the government went ahead with the deportation plane. We have a lot more flights to fill especially to Pakistan #evilgroominggangs”. This tweet was made in context to reports at the time of a flight deporting people with criminal convictions to the West Indies, and other reports at around the same time of the activities of grooming gangs of Pakistani origin in Oxford.
In April 2020, the Mr Weller tweeted “China whoops, sorry those ch**** c***s released this virus to kill the western world yes no?”.

In June 2020, the Respondent received an anonymous letter, written with the intention of highlighted the “disturbing trend of the views frontline SWR staff seem to consistently to hold”.

The letter made reference to the use of the derogatory terms used such as “ch**k” and attacking those of Muslim faith. The letter included attached screenshots of some of Mr Wellers tweets as seen above.

Mr Weller was asked to attend a meeting the following day with regards to this letter and to investigate the complaint further. In preparation for the meeting, a member of staff, Mr Bumstead, asked a HR colleague (referred to in proceedings only as ‘Jade’) to look into Mr Weller’s Twitter account; she performed the task as requested and took screenshots of the tweets.

When Mr Bumstead had the meeting with Mr Weller, he asked permission to allow Jade to look into his Twitter account. In response, Mr Weller took out his phone immediately and made his account private.

When they had a short recess in the meeting, Mr Weller went one step further and deleted his account. Upon returning from the break, Mr Bumstead showed Mr Weller the screenshots obtained by Jade and questioned him on these and the letter they had received.

Mr Weller then lied to Mr Bumstead. He said that his account had been deleted the previous Monday and that Twitter accounts can only be deleted on a computer. He then stated his account had been hacked and he could not therefore admit whether he was the one who had tweeted/retweeted the tweets in question. He then stated that even when he had full access to his account, he would not read tweets before retweeting them.

Mr Weller was invited to a disciplinary meeting with a Mr Kennedy, during which Mr Weller read out a prepared speech. In this, he highlighted that Mr Bumstead “incorrectly” suggested he had signed the Respondent’s social media policy, he said he didn’t know about any paperwork that was supplied alongside his work tablet and that he had “not collected it”, before then going on to admitting that he had lied about his account being hacked and that he deliberately deleted his account during the meeting; the reason he gave was that he had “panicked” when he was accused of racism.

The tribunal heard that Mr Kennedy said Mr Weller was “not remorseful about his conduct, only that it had come to light”, but Mr Weller said he was remorseful but was “into the political thing” and “chasing popularity”.

Mr Kennedy also said he could accept Mr Weller’s “lack of education” to a degree, but that Mr Weller’s tweet about Chinese people was “a terrible and unacceptable thing to broadcast or to write down”. Mr Weller later said he was “disgusted with himself and had let his colleagues and family down”.

As the meeting concluded, Mr Kennedy informed Mr Weller that he was to be dismissed with immediate effect. He appealed this in a further meeting in early September 2020, in which he told the Respondent that he was drinking when sent the Chinese tweet, adding: “When I drink I say silly things.” His appeal was not successful.

Employment Judge Cox assessed the information provided by all parties and decided that Mr Weller was in fact unfairly dismissed as the Respondent did not have “reasonable grounds” for not believing that Mr Weller had knowledge of the social media policies and their contents.

Judge Cox made reference to the unsigned ‘Record of Briefing‘ document and the lack of perceived agreement to the Respondent’s social media policy; it was found he was unaware of such policies.

However, the tribunal said Mr Weller’s Twitter account and tweets could damage working relationships in a multicultural workforce and that his conduct was “culpable and blameworthy and that it caused or contributed to his dismissal”. Judge Cox confirmed that Mr Weller was wholly to blame and reduced both his Basic and Compensatory Award by 100%.

You can find the full judgement here.

A train driver who engaged in racially charged posts on Twitter ruled to be unfairly dismissed

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