Waverly
Heights Ltd. v. UCBR – Commonwealth Court – November 13, 2017
Held:
Tweet of claimant on her personal Twitter page held not to violate ER social
media policy.
Tweet
of July 2016: “@realDonaldTrump I am the
VP of HR in a comp outside of philly an informal survey of our employees shows
100% AA employees voting Trump!”
Social
media policy provided:
[Employer] has an interest in
promoting and protecting its reputation[,] as well as the dignity, respect, and
confidentiality of its residents, clients, and employees as depicted in social
medial, whether through [Employer’s] own postings or that of others. Towards
that end, [Employer] will actively manage the content of its social media sites
to uphold the mission and values of the company. Also, [Employer] expects
employees who identify themselves with [Employer] in either internal or
external social media to conduct themselves according to this policy.
Where
an employer seeks to deny UC benefits based on a work-rule violation, the
employer must prove the existence of a work rule, the reasonableness of the
rule and the employee's violation of the rule. Maskerines v. UCBR, 13 A.3d 553,
557 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2011). If the employer meets its burden, the burden then
shifts to the claimant to demonstrate good cause for her actions. Johns, 87
A.3d at 1010. Here, Employer terminated Claimant for violating its Social Media
Policy because she represented herself as Employer’s Vice President.
