Professor Gets Fired for Filing Bad Faith Twitter Harassment Complaint

A controversial university professor became embroiled in a full-blown “Twitter war” with her colleagues. The professor complained to HR contending that the tweets constituted harassment. But after investigating, the university found no harassment and characterized the professor’s complaint as being malicious, frivolous, vexatious and made in bad faith. A month later, it terminated her employment. The professor sued asserting 10 different claims. After going through the extensive evidence, the Alberta arbitrator dismissed most of the grievances but finding for the professor on certain procedural and technical grounds. Because the relationship between the professor and university was destroyed beyond reparation, the arbitration ruled out reinstatement and said that the professor would instead get money damages for the harm she suffered, which would be determined at a later hearing [Board of Governors of Mount Royal University v Mount Royal Faculty Association, 2024 CanLII 68666 (AB GAA), July 2, 2024].

Action Point: Use the HRI template to create your own social media use policy