Being named

[Gizmo79]

So, I have been reasonably active on several tweets regarding trans issues recently, nothing major, stuck to Males being Males etc. Have had a massive backlash where they are now directly addressing
An NHS trust [which I have a friend working for but I work in a different one) and another trans group stating how I should be sacked.
I feel sick. I haven’t done anything wrong.
God I feel sick.
I can’t lose my job

That sounds really tough sorry you are going through this. Do you mean someone named you when you tweeted anonymously or that you tweeted under your own name and have been targeted?

I have stupidly tweeted under a name known to colleagues. Which has then been extrapolateD to another nhs trust.

Has anyone been in this situation before?

Does your work have a policy that your tweets have breached?

As long as your tweets are within the law, they can't legally use them as an excuse to sack you. (but thats not to say they wont find another ''reason''.)

If you tweeted in your real name you should make sure you don't name your employer, check your work place policy on social media, and you might want to talk to ACAS.

If you used a pseudonym and don't name your employer in your bio, then try to narrow down who may have worked out who you are and block them. You may need to make your account private for a while.

Delete your tweets?

Does the NHS or your trust have a social media policy?
Have you breeched that policy?
Is the policy reasonable in its expectations eg does it restrict free speech or free thought?

You need to know the answers to those questions. Frankly, if the NHS or the Trust do sanction you, it could be an excellent test case. (Although I can completely understand not wanting to be test case). I am sorry that you getting flack simply stating your beliefs. You should be allowed to express your views on this freely, especially since since some people go unsanctioned for telling people to die grease fires.

For every action there is a consequence, so what if you lose your job be proud

How are you getting on now op?

How're things, OP?

Lock your twitter account. Check your work's policy on social media use and political activity - for e.g. are you allowed to voice political opinions in a private capacity so long as they can't be linked to your workplace? And talk to ACAS and/or your trade union for advice.

NB this is why I have made a few carefully measured, cautious comments using my real name BTL in national newspapers. If ever anyone did try to complain to my employer my line would be "look, we're allowed to voice private political opinions so long as we are careful not to link them in any way to our status as employee of the organisation, I've done so in my real name so not trying to hide anything, and I'm measured in what I say - these are political/belief based opinions about women's sport and women's prisons, not personal attacks on anyone."

Hi OP, this happened to me, someone made an 'anonymous' report to my employer (I know who it was). My account bio doesn't link me to work or have my surname, and I don't tweet about work. I was very VERY lucky in that my employer (charity, but 'woke' sector) said "not a work account, not on work time, no link to work, not interested".

By the sounds of it my tweet was a lot worse than yours - it was directly @ M0rgane 0ger (and was out of order tbh - it was just before Magdalen died and while VRR were under attack and I was drunk furious.

I apologised profusely for bringing trouble to their door, immediately deleted it, locked my account and blocked everyone I worked with (before I worked out who'd reported me).

Screen shot the tweet and then delete it. Lock your account, lie low and hope for the best. DM me if you need to.

I've since unlocked my account and I've definitely learnt my lesson about being intemperate. But there are people in my work who know about it and now will barely speak to me because they think I'm full of hate. It's not been a pleasant experience.

Has it changed my views? Has it FUCK. Shopping someone to their employer for "wrongthink" is fascism, pure and simple. We shouldn't be in this situation. Solidarity, sister.

Good luck

Hi, thanks for the support. Been at work all day. Got a phone call from the comms director of the other trust. They have put out on Twitter that I don’t work there.
So far no contact from my own trust, so hoping this will all die down. Just have felt sick most of the day not knowing what was going to happen. All over tweets comparing the holocaust to trans people being victimised, which I wasn’t doing anyway (victimising that is).

To add to it all they screen shotted this thread and linked me in.
I know I didn’t say or do anything wrong, so I won’t delete my account.
I was just disgusted that they compared the holocaust to current trans issues.
Thanks again. Made me feel a lot better coming home to read some supportive messages after a very short staffed day.

Oh Gizmo79, so sorry this is happening to you. xx

So sorry @gizmo79.

So sorry this is happening. I get seriously angry about not being able to speak out, and absolutely believe that it adds to the problem when the views of informed people are kept out of public spaces.

I'm sorry you are going through this.from a practical POV, do you also need to check your point professional body's policy & consider contacting your union?

Thanks again. I will check in with my union at some point. Have a lot of HR issues to sort next week (maybe I will be one of them soon!).
I am feeling a lot more positive tonight. Thanks to you guys.
It appears original thread has gone, soooo...
I’m an annoying bugger so won’t just be quiet.
I will just be smarter than I was.

Gizmo sending you virtual

EHRC put out some legal guidance on this aimed at employees and employers

www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/advice-and-guidance/freedom-expression

They said key points were:

‘Freedom of expression is a fundamental right protected under the Human Rights Act 1998 by Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. It is also a fundamental right under common law
Protection under Article 10 extends to the expression of views that may shock, disturb or offend the deeply-held beliefs of others
Any restrictions on freedom of expression must always be clearly set out in law, necessary in a democratic society for a legitimate aim, and proportionate
Subject to these conditions, freedom of expression may be limited in certain circumstances, including in order to protect others from violence, hatred and discrimination
In particular, freedom of expression does not protect statements that discriminate against or harass, or incite violence or hatred against, other persons and groups, particularly by reference to their race, religious belief, gender or sexual orientation
The boundary between the expression of intolerant or offensive views and hate speech is not always an easy one to draw. However, a number of factors are likely to be relevant, including the intention of the person making the statement, the context in which they are making it, the intended audience, and the particular words used
Freedom of expression is protected more strongly in some contexts than others. In particular, a wide degree of tolerance is accorded to political speech and debate during election campaigns.’