A sewage worker was sacked after condemning the Oct 7 massacre.
FSU member Damon Joshua was dismissed by Severn Trent Water after he described Hamas as “a group of violent and disgusting terrorists” in a post on the company’s staff intranet website on the anniversary of the attack. The Telegraph has the story.
The post was taken down by managers at the company following internal complaints that “the terminology being used includes very derogatory words” and “is very one-sided”.
According to documents seen by The Telegraph, one complainant said: “The post reflects poorly on Severn Trent’s reputation as a diverse and inclusive company.”
Mr Joshua was immediately suspended and then later dismissed from his job without notice following a disciplinary hearing.
In the post in question, Mr Joshua said: “One year ago our valued partners and friends, Israel, were horrifically attacked by a group of violent and disgusting terrorists.
“I can say with confidence today that the vast majority of STW’s employees stand in solidarity with our Jewish, Israeli and Zionist colleagues against the evil of Islamist terror.”
The post also included an image of the flag of Israel.
Mr Joshua told The Telegraph: “It happened in a matter of hours. I made the post at 7.50. I got a call from my manager at 10 or 11 telling me that it had been taken down. At 1pm I got called to a meeting room on the site that I was working on. My manager and her manager were there and I was suspended.
“They didn’t really give an opinion on what I’d wrote. They just said that it was seen as offensive.”
He added: “They used the word ‘derogatory’ for the words I had used to describe a terrorist organisation, which shocked me. It seems quite shocking to me. How could it be one-sided or derogatory to oppose a terrorist. Surely this is only one-sided.”
Mr Joshua says he made the post following messages to managers asking if they would do anything to commemorate the anniversary of the attacks, to which he says he received no reply.
At his disciplinary hearing he was told that the post had caused “significant offence” to three members of staff who complained about it.
Managers concluded that “this offence is in relation to a protected characteristic, specifically religious belief” and dismissed him for gross misconduct.
He was told that “the language used in the post caused offence to employees with different perspectives, particularly those with Muslim or Palestinian backgrounds”.
Mr Joshua argued throughout the disciplinary process that his post had not mentioned any religious group other than Jews and only referred to “Islamist terror”, not Islam.
He told The Telegraph: “There’s a distinction that I was trying to make between Islamist terror and Islam. I didn’t want to link it with all of Islam. Because there is a big difference. Not all followers of Islam are Islamists and the attack was perpetrated by Hamas who are an Islamist terror organisation.”
Mr Joshua claimed that in the disciplinary hearing that one of his managers asked “how do you think a Palestinian employee would feel reading this?”
They also raised concerns that “the wording in the post explicitly suggests support of a particular geopolitical stance”. They told Mr Joshua his claim that the majority of STW staff supported Israel “creates exclusion and assumptions of solidarity”.
Mr Joshua, who has since found employment elsewhere, said the experience was “really stressful” and blames “snobbish” white-collar colleagues for his dismissal. He says it has made him “think twice” about expressing his views.
“It wasn’t nice. There were a few sleepless nights. The hardest part was all the waiting and the not knowing,” he said.
“People had complained, and they told me it was offensive, but I got no further details for months after I was suspended.
“I was a maintenance engineer. I did frontline work in the production areas. It’s not a very nice job dealing with sewage.
“I suspect the people who complained were office-based staff. There’s a massive difference between office and production. So I think they looked down on me.
“They’re slightly snobbish. They sit in their brand new headquarters at their posh desk with their expensive office chairs. It’s different when you’re working on the actual site.
“It has definitely made me think twice about expressing my views in public.
“There is a whole war on free speech in this country at the moment. Lots of people know it but are too scared to stand up against it.”
Mr Joshua was represented in his case by the Free Speech Union.
Dr Ben Jones, Director of Case Management at the Free Speech Union, said: “We’ve dealt with 3,500 cases but the facts of Damon’s are particularly shocking. Sacking somebody for condemning Hamas is one of the most egregious cases of cancel culture we’ve seen.”
Worth reading in full.
