Danish bank worker fired for Facebook rant wins damages

The Danish pensions administrator logged on to the social networking site to vent her frustrations on 28 December - the last business day of the year in Denmark - after being inundated with requests from clients.

"Holidays! Go to hell, people who remember to make deposits into children's savings accounts and pensions on the last business day of the year! There are 364 other days of the year when you can call about that," she wrote in a status update littered with expletives.

The woman was fired after a colleague took a screen shot of her Facebook rant and alerted their employer to it on 3 January.

However, an employment tribunal found she should have been let off with just a warning and ordered the bank to pay her just under eight months' worth of wages in compensation.

The colleague who reported the incident later refused to testify, which is believed to have helped her colleague's case against the bank, the Financial Services Union Denmark said in a statement, without naming the bank.

"The woman realised that what she had done was wrong, but felt that the punishment didn't fit the crime," the union said.

She admitted to rarely writing anything on Facebook since losing her job."If you can only write what a lovely day it is today and see how beautiful my children are, then there's no point," she said.

"This case has taught me that no matter how private you make your profile, you cannot guard yourself against others taking it and bringing it into public domain," she added.

"I had done my best to make a closed and private profile but I obviously let someone in who shouldn't have been there," she added.

Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge