Burnley Fan Dismissed By His Employer Due To “White Lives Matter” Banner

The Burnley fan responsible for the “White Lives Matter Burnley” banner, which was flown over the Etihad Stadium on Monday (22nd June) evening during the Burnley and Manchester City match, has been dismissed from his job.

Jake Hepple, who worked for engineering firm, Paradigm Precision, was sacked by his employer on Wednesday (24th June) after they undertook an investigation. A spokesperson from Paradigm Precision said:

“We have concluded our investigation into the conduct of one of our employees in relation to an incident at the Burnley v Manchester City match, as well as other related matters.

“We have concluded that there has been a breach of the company’s various policies and procedures. The individual no longer works for the company.

“Paradigm Precision does not condone or tolerate racism in any form and is fully committed to diversity and inclusion.”

Lancashire Police investigated the incident but announced on Tuesday that no crime had been committed by Mr Hepple.

The incident of focus occurred at the beginning of the Premier League encounter in Manchester, shortly after both sets of players and match officials took a knee in a show of support to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Burnley Football Club condemned the actions, adding that they would issue life-time bans to those involved. Club captain, Ben Mee, commented that he and his team mates were “ashamed” and “embarrassed” by the incident.

Comment

The actions and the subsequent sacking of Mr Hepple shows how conduct outside of the workplace can have a detrimental impact on someone’s employment.

In order to fairly dismiss an employee, an employer should have a fair reason under S98 Employment Rights Act and follow a fair procedure before a decision is made. These reasons are:

• Conduct;
• Capability;
• Redundancy;
• Contravention of a statutory enactment; and
• ‘Some other substantial reason’.

It may be potentially fair to dismiss an employee for conduct outside of the workplace in certain circumstances. For example, the employee’s conduct may damage the employer’s reputation, even if it takes place outside work.

Although Mr Hepple’s actions were not in the course of his employment, his employer was able to rely on internal policies and procedures which it found he had breached nonetheless.

In situations like the one involving Mr Hepple, employers have to cautiously examine whether the actions of an employee has had an impact on:

• Their suitability to undertake their role;
• If it has impacted their relationships with work colleagues, customers or clients; and
• If the conduct has resulted in reputational damage for the company.

If an employer decides to dismiss an employee due to conduct outside of the workplace they will need to provide evidence that a fair procedure was followed and that their decision to dismiss the employee for the conduct was reasonable in all of the circumstances. The employee should also be given the opportunity to respond to the employer’s concerns.

Employers are advised to review their workplace disciplinary policies and any associated procedures (such as social media policies) to ensure that they do cover ‘outside of work’ misconduct and set out the potential consequences of a breach of the rules to the workforce.