In Kurmajic v Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd, K assisted a driver when his car became stuck on a ramp in the store’s car park. A colleague placed photos of the incident on his Facebook page with the comment ‘whoops’ and K posted a comment identifying the driver, giving his name, age (86), address and car registration number. During an investigation, K expressed his concern about the driver’s fitness to drive. Following a disciplinary hearing, K was dismissed for gross misconduct for ‘Bringing the brand into disrepute’ by breaching the Company’s Social Networking policy. An ET found the dismissal unfair principally because: the disciplinary process was not approached with an open mind, K did not have knowledge of the policies he had breached, it was K’s first disciplinary offence, there was only one short post revealing the customer’s details, the potential for brand damage was limited because action was taken as soon as it came to light and no other sanction was considered.

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