Tribunal ruling highlights dangers of sending GIFs at work
Sending what you think is a humorous GIF to a work colleague may appear harmless, but a ruling by an employment tribunal has illustrated it can be anything but.
A female security guard, Ms Ursuleanu, has been awarded almost £14,000 at tribunal after an employment judge ruled that the short, animated images she had been sent by a co-worker amounted to harassment.
Ursuleanu, who is Romanian, worked as a security guard for Vicars Cross Healthcare, a pharmacy which ran a vaccination centre in Chester, from August 2022 to March 2023, during the Covid-19 pandemic.
She had struck up a friendship with co-worker Mr Rae and, in February 2023, after a fire inspection, sent Rae a message saying “hi”, to which he responded with a GIF that said, “drama incoming”.
Bullying and harassment
Media focus on sexual harassment is improving workplace culture
‘All reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment (webinar)
She followed up with a message saying “all staff needed to sign a fire risk assessment and the fire extinguishers needed to be tested” after the inspection. She also sent three messages to the work group chat to confirm the instructions, to which Rae responded: “already sorted today, don’t worry”.
However, when Ursuleanu sent a thumbs-up emoji in response, the tribunal heard Rae sent a GIF that read: “BITCH I AM LYING”, before saying that he would sort it out soon.
Ursuleanu replied, “Very professional”, to which Rae responded with a GIF of the actor Jim Carrey with a sarcastic smile.
The tribunal heard how Ursuleanu had been upset by the tone and language of the GIFs, especially being described by Rae as a “bitch”. She had even sent Rae a late-night, tearful video message.
Rae argued he had apologised and had emphasised he had not meant anything derogatory in his replies. He had simply typed into the GIF search box the words “I am joking” and the GIF had come up as an option.
Ursuleanu also described how, in a separate earlier incident, a volunteer at the site had told her that Ursuleanu “went to school with Putin” and that she was “acting like Putin”, which she also found upsetting.
Rae had argued that as a gay man, the term “bitch” was commonly used in his community as a term of endearment. But this defence was rejected by Employment Judge Jennifer Ainscough.
Rae had sent the GIF to Ursuleanu primarily because she was a woman, she argued. “The tribunal has accepted the evidence of [Rae] that the purpose of the GIF was not to violate [Ursuleanu’s] dignity or create the intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.
“However, the GIF was sent in a group chat two days after the ‘Putin’ comment. [Ursuleanu] sent [Rae] a video the same night to show the comment had the effect of violating [Ursuleanu’s] dignity and/or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.
“The tribunal has determined that, given the derogatory nature of the comment, it was reasonable for the GIF to have that effect on [Ursuleanu]. It was made in a group chat, [Ursuleanu] was already upset about the ‘Putin’ comment, and it was [Ursuleanu’s] evidence that even her friend was making abusive comments to her.
“The tribunal has therefore concluded that this did amount to harassment related to [Ursuleanu’s] sex,” Judge Ainscough concluded.
The judgment found that Ursuleanu’s complaint of harassment related to sex and her complaint of sexual harassment succeeded. In remedy, the judge ordered Vicars Cross Healthcare to pay the claimant £11,000 in compensation
for injury to feelings, plus £2,736 in interest.
Latest HR job opportunities on Personnel Today
Browse more human resources jobs
The post Tribunal ruling highlights dangers of sending GIFs at work appeared first on Personnel Today.
Source: www.personneltoday.com