Can You Be Fired For Sending Private Messages About Colleagues?

The German Federal Labour Court has clarified the rules on when an employee who makes offensive comments about colleagues in a private chat can be dismissed.

According to a recent decision of the German Federal Labour Court (BAG), an employee will not usually be able to claim that messages in private chat groups are confidential if he or she makes strongly insulting, racist, sexist or violent comments about superiors and other colleagues.

The case

An employee had belonged to a private chat group with a handful of other employees for several years. The members of the chat group had been friends for many years and some were also related to each other. The employees exchanged information in the group on purely private topics. However, the employee, as well as some other group members, also sent derogatory messages concerning colleagues and superiors. The comments were sometimes racist and in some cases incited violence. The employer learned of this by chance