An HR expert has shed light on how a common piece of employment law could have allowed a firm to sack a worker for “being annoying” and “eating loudly”.
In a TikTok video, which has racked up almost 900,000 views at the time of writing, Judith Fiddler, who works with employers and employees with their HR and employment law issues, explained that a woman was dismissed from her role after three complaints had come in over the past 18 months at an unnamed firm.
"The complaints have been things like, she was eating loudly, she was talking incessantly and she had a lack of self awareness" Fiddler explained of the worker, who had reportedly worked at the unnamed company for five years.
The employment law expert said that "one or two of the complaints alluded to the fact that they would leave if she was still gonna be there because [she] made their work life experience into intolerable".
The company had then chosen to support the people who were threatening to leave over the person who was "allegedly being very annoying" and "a disciplinary process has evolved from there".
Many people in the comments were, understandably, shocked at such a decision, and debated among themselves whether it was legal to simply sack someone because co-workers found them ‘annoying’.
But in a follow-up video, Fiddler shed light on a common yet often controversially-used piece of employment law that was likely used in this scenario.
"The answer is an SOSR dismissal," Fiddler revealed.
SOSR, or ‘some...
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