B&Q workers pay the penalty for Facebook footie faux-pas

Monday 27 March 2017

Some might describe it as a classic 'own goal.'

Two B&Q workers have been caught out taking extra time off work - because they posted photos on Facebook of one of them at a football match, when they should have been returning to Jersey for work.

Now, the Employment Tribunal has ruled that the DIY superstore in Jersey was right to give both men the sack. 

Carlos Dos Anjos and Jose Marques had both worked at B&Q for around six years - they went to Portugal on holiday, but texted their boss saying they were going to be late back to work, because of heavy traffic after a series of road accidents in Spain in August 2015.

But it wasn’t true. Evidence showed they’d never planned to be back on the Monday. There was no proof they’d ever booked the Sunday evening ferry from St Malo as they claimed. Bookings they did have had apparently been tampered with. And photos of one of them at a football match on the Sunday showed they’d lied about what they’d been up to.

After being sacked Mr Dos Anjos and Mr Marques took their case to the Tribunal claiming they’d been unfairly and wrongfully dismissed. 

But the Tribunal agreed their employer had been right to sack them for ‘gross misconduct.' It also noted the pair had not helped themselves, saying it was “an unfortunate example of a lie getting out of hand."

They’d been given numerous chances at disciplinary hearings to tell the truth. As the Tribunal was told, their HR boss felt that,  “...in the absence of any apology, regret or any attempt to be honest with her, she had no option but to dismiss them."