Lack of Warning Undermines Firing for Negative “Tweets”

An organization fired its communications director for making a series of remarks about the organization, its officials and clients on her personal blog. Examples: “I wonder if other [organizations] have as much propaganda as ours” and “will prob get in trouble for this but i don’t care; team tactics failed.” The organization acknowledged that none of the individual tweets were egregious but contended that, cumulatively, they had a negative enough effect to constitute just cause. Ruling: The termination was wrongful and the organization had to pay 5 months’ notice because it never complained about the director’s tweets or warned her that they were putting her job in jeopardy [Kim v. International Triathalon Union, 2014 BCSC 2151 (CanLII)].