A former human resources executive’s tweet to then-candidate Donald Trump during the 2016 U.S. presidential race was enough to get her fired from her job, but, according to a Pennsylvania appeals court, not enough to block her from receiving unemployment compensation benefits.
In a precedential Nov. 13 opinion that offered some guidance on what it means for employees to represent their employers on social media, a unanimous three-judge panel of the Commonwealth Court upheld the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review’s decision to grant UC benefits to Kathleen M. Jungclaus. The appeals court rejected her former employer’s argument that the offending tweet constituted willful misconduct under Section 402(e) of the Unemployment Compensation Law because it violated the company’s social media and communications policies.
