June 24, 2022 6.00 pm This story is over 35 months old

Sacked bar worker wins unfair dismissal claim from Lincoln bar

A social media post got her sacked
Trebles Nightclub in Lincoln. | Photo: Daniel Jaines
By Local Democracy Reporter

A Lincoln bar worker who was sacked for sharing a Facebook post accusing her boss of acting inappropriately around women has won an unfair dismissal case.

Damaris Trench had liked and shared comments on Facebook alleging that her boss Himesh Patel, owner of Trebles bar in Lincoln, was ‘creepy’ in his behaviour around women.

The Daily Mail reports that social media posts accused Patel of asking a colleague for a threesome, buying underage girls drinks and attempting to kiss female staff members.

Damaris’ boyfriend Dan Sargeant made the post after he resigned from Trebles following accusations of drinking on shift and being repeatedly late, an employment tribunal heard.

He took to social media to write a lengthy post about Mr Patel’s ‘wildly inappropriate’ behaviour. Damaris liked and shared the posts and was sacked from her role six days later for gross misconduct, despite deleting it and apologising hours later.

However, she is now due for compensation from her former employers after it was discovered that Trebles do not have a social media policy for staff, and Damaris had not acted ‘vindictively’.

Miss Trench succeeded in her claims of unfair dismissal, and there will now be a remedy hearing in due course to decided how much compensation Trebles owner Performance Bar Limited will have to pay her.

It wasn’t a complete victory for Damaris, though, as her other complaints of automatic unfair dismissal and victimisation failed to be passed through.