Bombay High Court upholds termination of Hitachi employee over social media posts

Observing that freedom of speech and expression cannot be allowed to go beyond the limits of reasonableness, the Bombay High Court has upheld the termination of an employee who put up provocative posts against Hitachi Astemo Fie Private Limited.

The development came while a bench of Justice Milind Jadhav was hearing a civil writ petition filed by Hitachi, an auto parts manufacturing company, based in Pune.

The company had terminated an employee after he uploaded two posts on Facebook against the company.

Hitachi approached the Bombay High Court challenging an order of a labour court, reversing the termination of the employee for putting provocative posts against the company.

In his order, Justice Jadhav said the posts were directed against the company with a clear intent to incite hatred and were "provocative".

The court also observed that a "strong message needs to be sent out against" acts of uploading hateful social media posts against a company when talks were going on between a company and workers' union over wage revision.

The dispute dates back to 2017, when the company was facing issues over the settlement of wages, which led to office bearers resorting to various agitations, including a hunger strike by employees.

A settlement was reached after nearly 20 months.

According to Hitachi, the social media posts by the employee were defamatory.

The posts also instigated other employees against the management of the company, as it suggested taking up violent measures to settle the dispute.

In 2018, an enquiry officer of the company held the employee guilty of this misconduct and his employment was terminated through an order on May 2, 2018.

The employee challenged the termination before the labour court in Pune, which quashed the order.

Hitachi challenged this order before the high court.