Airline employees in the UK have gotten canned for making derogatory comments about their airline’s passengers on Facebook.
A group of Virgin Atlantic employees criticized the airline’s jet engine maintenance, complained about cockroaches on planes, and referred to passengers as “chavs.” This led to the firing of 13 cabin crew. The airline’s statement included:
Virgin Atlantic can confirm that 13 members of its cabin crew will be leaving the company after breaking staff policies due to totally inappropriate behaviour.
[...]
Following a thorough investigation, it was found that all 13 staff participated in a discussion on the networking site Facebook, which brought the company into disrepute and insulted some of our passengers.
What are “chavs,” the non-British readers may ask?
Chav, or Charv/Charva, is a mainly derogatory slang term in the United Kingdom for a person whose lifestyle, branded casual clothing (especially if counterfeit), speech and/or mannerisms are perceived to be common, proletarian and vulgar. ‘Chav’ is often used as a stereotype to refer to white, poorly educated, aggressive youths, but youth and aggression are not the defining attributes of a ‘chav’. The term is similar to America’s ‘white trash’ stereotype.
Not to be left out, British Airways ground staff at Gatwick were also found to be using the same term to describe their passengers on Facebook. Added bonus: “They also have little time for celebrity passengers and their ire is also drawn by ‘stupid American accents.’” Delightful!
Complaining about customers is the great pastime of thousands of workers. Witness websites like NotAlwaysRight.com. But participants in those sites tend to be more careful — no names are named. By doing this on Facebook, Virgin and BA employees were sticking their necks out there.
These are not exactly positive model employees, clearly. Having said that, is criticizing the company a firing offense? The cabin crew may have been perfectly pleasant with their passengers, while they seethed quietly inside. So should the company have fired them for something they did in their free time?
The question goes to you: Did the company go too far in firing these crewmembers for the comments they made online? Or does the employee’s obligation to maintain decorum extend to the online space?
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November 2nd, 2008 at 8:04 pm
They absolutely did. I can’t say what the laws are in England, but here that violates the right to free speech. An employer can only regulate and judge you on your behavior when you are on the clock. To have control of someone in any fashion when you are not paying them is tantamount to slavery.
That said, the ones complaining about “stupid American” passengers are probably a bunch of socialist Euro-fags who chain smoke and prefer hairy women.
November 3rd, 2008 at 1:29 am
J-man – good thing you’ve used your right to free speech to identify yourself as a foul homophobe. Lovely.
November 3rd, 2008 at 7:33 am
Free speech is a right that is guaranteed by the constitution..a protection that ONLY prevents the government from limiting your speech not private enterprise. If you work for a company then you represent that company 24/7. Yes, you have a legal right to your free speech and to be stupid, arrogant, condescending, mean spirited towards your company and it’s clients who pay your salary..but they also have a righ to get rid of people who are of such ilk and are disloyal and would be happier working somewhere else. Good riddance. There would be no question in this world if the perps were calling people of different races slang names including the “n” word..but other people are not deserving of respect because they are not cool..maybe they are poorly dressed for being squeezed into smaller and smaller spaces and have more humble backgrounds or they are not politically correct as the BBC might have a particular grudge against them like Americans..these people don’t deserve the basic respect that the British law requires for other specific groups or the politically correct group. Hooray for the airline dumping these “superior” employees. The 13 are happier now they can go to work for a company that they respect and be able to deal only with people that they think are chic and
equal to themselves.
November 3rd, 2008 at 7:37 am
P.S.
ONLY the French are allowed to behave in this manner..It is institutionalized into their very character and they can’t help themselves. They can’t be fired for such behavior or for any other behavior. Apparently the British are not ready for this.
November 3rd, 2008 at 7:57 am
Were these people hourly or salaried. If the former, then I wouldn’t think the company could legally take this action (but IANAL). If the latter, then the 24/7/365 comment is probably accurate.
November 3rd, 2008 at 9:35 am
While Robert Henderson’s anti-French attitude goes a bit far, I think he’s right when he says that a person who identifies him/herself as a Virgin Atlantic employee, and makes personally-identifiable information public, becomes responsible for what they say about the company in a forum like Facebook. Robert is right: If they had used the “n” word (or the “c” word, a la John McCain…) then they would have been (rightly) called to the carpet.
One quibble with Robert: These employees were canned in the UK, not the US. I’m an American, and I make no claim to expertise on UK rights and freedoms, but I know there is no written constitution, so is there a free speech doctrine enshrined in UK law elsewhere? Any barristers out there to clear this up?
November 3rd, 2008 at 10:39 pm
I personally have friends working as cabin crew, many of them are active bloggers, for what i observed, it is too common for them to complain about the pax, but it is less common for them to publicly complain about their employer.
Isnt it too common we make complains about things happening everyday, on our blogs?
I guess these 13 people were unfortunate, with the airline companies actively looking for ways to cost down, it is naturally for the airline to strengthen the policing their regulations, and use this as an excuse to fire those people.