{"id":10228,"date":"2021-03-31T09:20:52","date_gmt":"2021-03-31T13:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highswartz.com\/?p=10228"},"modified":"2021-09-28T10:53:37","modified_gmt":"2021-09-28T14:53:37","slug":"fired-for-social-media-posts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highswartz.com\/legal-insights\/fired-for-social-media-posts\/","title":{"rendered":"Offensive Social Media Posts by Pennsylvania Employees Justify Termination"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cIf you can\u2019t say anything nice, don\u2019t say anything at all,\u201d our parents told us. Two recent Pennsylvania employment termination cases give this same advice to adult social media users. In both cases, courts upheld terminations for employees\u2019 mean-spirited off-duty social media comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Carr v. Commonwealth, 230 A.3d 1075 (Pa. 2020)<\/a>, a PennDOT employee (Carr) encountered a poorly driven school bus while driving to work. She posted to a Facebook group, \u201cSchool bus drivers don\u2019t give a flying s**t about those babies\u201d and said she would \u201cgladly crash into a school bus\u201d. She added, \u201cYou\u2019re (sic) kids are your problem. Not mine.\u201d Carr disclosed that she worked for PennDOT. Facebook users sent Carr\u2019s post to PennDOT, which terminated her for misconduct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carr filed a civil service appeal , claiming First Amendment free speech rights. PennDOT argued that Carr\u2019s off-duty conduct undermined PennDOT\u2019s traffic safety goals and harmed PennDOT\u2019s reputation. The Civil Service Commission upheld PennDOT\u2019s action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Surprisingly, the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court overturned Carr\u2019s dismissal. Commonwealth Court viewed Carr\u2019s comments as protected speech about a matter of public concern, despite the reprehensible tone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court reversed Commonwealth Court and upheld Carr\u2019s dismissal. The Court held that Carr\u2019s Facebook rant interfered with PennDOT\u2019s highway safety mission. PennDOT therefore had reasonable concerns about adverse effects on PennDOT\u2019s ability to carry out its duties. Commonwealth Court therefore was wrong to hold that Carr\u2019s interest in commenting on bus safety outweighed PennDOT\u2019s broader public safety interest. In short, Carr\u2019s personal rant had limited public importance but caused significant detriment to PennDOT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justice Wecht concurred, stating that Carr\u2019s comments raised no public concern at all. He also discussed social media platforms\u2019 potential to disrupt agency operations, suggesting that public employees consider possible employment consequences before making off-hours social media comments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ellis v. Bank of NY Mellon Corp., 2020 WL 2557902 (W.D. Pa. May 20, 2020)<\/a>, affirmed, 2021 WL 829620 (3rd Cir. March 4, 2021) (not precedential) also mentioned vehicular violence in a Facebook post. Ellis was a white at-will employee in BNY Mellon\u2019s Pittsburgh wealth management department. During an East Pittsburgh street protest after police killed an African-American teenager, a local councilman drove a car through the crowd. Ellis commented on her public Facebook page, \u201cHe should have taken a bus to plow thru.\u201d Her Facebook account disclosed that she was a Mellon employee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public reaction was immediate. The public \u201cinundated her employer with complaints\u201d on Facebook and the Bank\u2019s ethics hotline, and to the CEO and Human Resource Chief. They demanded to know if the post reflected Mellon\u2019s values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After an emergency investigation, Mellon terminated Ellis immediately. Mellon decided that Ellis had violated Mellon\u2019s Social Media Policy prohibiting employees from conduct harming the Bank\u2019s reputation. This Policy warned that violations could lead to termination. The Bank told Ellis that her post was offensive, showed poor judgment and disrespect for others, and encouraged violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an at-will private sector employee, Ellis lacked First Amendment protection for off-duty comments. However, Ellis filed a race discrimination claim. She complained of harsher treatment than African-American employees who posted Facebook comments on the same incident or police brutality. BNY Mellon moved for summary judgment, contending that Ellis failed to make out a prima facie case because the African-American comparators were not similarly situated to Ellis. The comparators worked in different positions with different responsibilities and supervisors. The court granted summary judgment to Mellon. The court contrasted Ellis\u2019 posting from the comparators\u2019 postings, holding that Ellis addressed current news and supported driving through a crowd. The Court held that the Bank had legitimate, non-discriminatory grounds to fire Ellis for a posting that \u201cwas offensive in nature, advocated violence, demonstrated extremely poor judgment, and created a reputational risk\u201d to the Bank. In a very brief opinion, the Third Circuit recently affirmed the District Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our parents\u2019 warning was right. And before posting on social media, employees should also remember the warning given law enforcement, albeit in a different context: \u201cYou have the right to remain silent; anything you say may be used against you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf you can\u2019t say anything nice, don\u2019t say anything at all,\u201d our parents told us....<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":10229,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_theme","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,21],"practice":[325],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPA Employees Profane Social Media Posts Justify Termination<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pennsylvania employees should think twice before posting anything offensive on social media.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/highswartz.com\/legal-insights\/fired-for-social-media-posts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Offensive Social Media Posts by Pennsylvania Employees Justify Termination\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pennsylvania employees should think twice before posting anything offensive on social media.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/highswartz.com\/legal-insights\/fired-for-social-media-posts\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"High Swartz Law Firm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-31T13:20:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-09-28T14:53:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/highswartz.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/social-media-post-by-woman-fb.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"393\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Thomas D. 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