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Waverly Heights, Ltd. v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review

Pa. Commw. Ct.November 13, 2017No. 312 C.D. 2017Cited 41 times
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Case Details

Judge(s)
Brobson, Wojcik, Pellegrini
Status — whether other courts must follow this ruling
Published
Procedural Posture — the stage the case had reached
appeal

Related Laws

No specific laws identified for this ruling.

Outcome

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania affirmed the Unemployment Compensation Board of Review's decision granting unemployment benefits to the employee, finding that her social media post did not violate the employer's Social Media Policy because she did not identify herself with the employer.

What This Ruling Means

**What Happened** An employee was fired and then denied unemployment benefits after making a social media post that her employer claimed violated their social media policy. The employer, Waverly Heights Ltd., argued that the post was inappropriate and justified both the termination and the denial of unemployment compensation. The employee appealed this decision, claiming she deserved unemployment benefits. **What the Court Decided** The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court sided with the employee. The court found that her social media post did not actually violate the company's social media policy because she never identified herself as working for the employer in the post. Since there was no clear policy violation, the court ruled she was entitled to receive unemployment benefits. **Why This Matters for Workers** This ruling shows that employers cannot deny unemployment benefits simply by claiming a social media policy violation occurred. The policy violation must be clear and proven. For workers, this means that if you're fired for social media activity, you may still qualify for unemployment benefits if you didn't clearly connect your posts to your workplace or employer. However, workers should still be cautious about social media posts, as they can still lead to termination even if unemployment benefits remain available.

This summary was generated to explain the ruling in plain English and is not legal advice.

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