A bank worker who boasted about getting a £6,000 redundancy payout from the Royal Bank of Scotland on Facebook has been sacked – without receiving a PENNY.
Debt officer Katie Furlong, 23, posted her comments minutes after her bosses at the scandal-hit bank announced they were axing 3,500 jobs in September.
She bragged to pals that it was ”the best news ever” and that she would receive a ”nice payout”.
But furious bosses claimed she breached the company’s ”declaration of secrecy” amounting to ”gross misconduct” and sacked her without paying her any redundancy.
Today Katie announced she was taking the bank to a tribunal claiming unfair dismissal.
She said: ”RBS say that this is a breach of their ‘declaration of secrecy’ but I don’t think so.
”The information was already out there and all I was doing was having a chat with mates.
”I’m taking them to a tribunal because I don’t feel I should have been sacked. They got rid of me so they didn’t have to pay any redundancy.”
On September 2, RBS chiefs announced plans to slash 3,500 back-office jobs after 318 of its branches were bought by Spanish bank giant Santander.
Katie, who was off work sick, received a phone call from her manager telling her she would have to take redundancy or relocate to Birmingham.
Minutes after the call she wrote her first message on Facebook at 5.58pm.
She said: ”I speak for myself when I say WoOOOOooooOooooHOoooOooOoo’ it was pretty damn obvious something like this was coming.
”I’m neither stupid nor naive…and quote (sic) honestly it is the best news ever as far as I am concerned!”
She continued at 6.02pm: ”They will give us the option to take early retirement (for those eligible obviously), transfer to Birmingham and if so, the possibility of a travel allowance, or redundancies. Either way, SCORE!!!”.
At 20.17 she wrote: ”It was not unexpected. I’ve just hung on by my fingertips to stick around long enough for a nice payout when they could’ve had me out long ago without a penny! More fool them! Haha! Xx.”
A colleague who saw the comments reported her to her boss who suspended her when she returned on September 13.
Days later she was hauled before bosses who told her she was suspended pending a disciplinary hearing.
She was finally sacked last month but yesterday (Fri) started legal proceedings of her own.
She said: ”It’s so unfair. I can’t believe I’ve been treated so appallingly which essentially amounts to having a chat with my mates outside of work.”
Katie would have received approximately £6,000 in redundancy when the Telford centre closed in 2012.
A spokesman for RBS said: ”We do not comment on individual staff matters.”
The “colleague” deserves masses of bad luck in return for their unwarrented interference. Hope you get a result Katie, heaven knows how and organisation that seems to use the BBC as their official communications channel can take such a stance. 90% of announcements impacting staff over the past 3 years have appeared in the national press before a single front line member of staff have heard about it. Shame on you RBS …
It amazes me that people continue to broadcast their lives on Facebook!