A Pennsylvania life plan community executive who was fired after sending a pro-Trump tweet clearly violated the company’s social media policy and cannot proceed with an age and gender bias claim, a court ruled.
A US District Court judge recently denied an appeal by Kathleen Jungclaus, who filed suit against her former employer, Waverly Heights in Gladwyne, PA, alleging sex and age discrimination, retaliation and a hostile work environment.
The opinion reaffirms a previous court’s April 2022 finding.
Waverly Heights’ attorney told McKnight’s Senior Living that the company is pleased with the court’s finding that Waverly had a “legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason” for terminating Jungclaus’ employment.
“This case serves as a good reminder to employers the importance of holding all levels of company hierarchy — including upper-level management — accountable, through consistent application and enforcement of workplace policies,” said Grace Deon of Eastburn and Gray PC. “Another takeaway is the value in effectuating a thorough analysis before carrying out disciplinary action, coupled with thorough documentation of the factors underlying management’s decision-making process and recommendation to the board of trustees.”
‘Tread carefully’ with social media
Jungclaus worked at Waverly Heights for almost 20 years, serving as human resources director and then vice president of human resources. On July 24, 2016, she tweeted at then-presidential candidate Donald Trump from her personal account: “I am the VP of HR in a comp[any] outside of Philly[. A]n informal survey of our employees shows 100% AA employees Voting Trump!”
The Waverly Heights Board of Trustees human resources committee voted to fire Jungclas in an emergency meeting on Sept. 27, 2016, after an “anonymous member of the Waverly community” notified management about the post. The board contended Jungclaus violated the company’s social media policy — which she helped create.
The Waverly Heights board said that the “AA” in her tweet referred to African Americans and that Jungclaus’ tweet was an admission of singling out Black staff members and asking them about their political preferences, according to a blog post from Troutman Pepper law firm.
Waverly Heights challenged Jungclaus’ right to unemployment compensation benefits, which the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court affirmed.
Troutman Pepper cautioned other providers to “tread carefully” on employment decisions based on an employee’s social media posts.
“Unless an employer can affirmatively establish that a terminated employee engaged in willful misconduct or is ineligible for benefits due to other disqualifying reasons, then the terminated employee likely will be entitled to unemployment compensation,” the post reads. “At least for unemployment purposes, it is likely that state labor departments and the courts will not find such comments to rise to the level of willful misconduct.”
Provider prevails in termination case
Jungclaus filed an Equal Opportunity Employment Commission complaint on Dec. 13, 2016, against Waverly Heights, followed by a lawsuit against the retirement community and CEO Thomas Garvin on Oct. 6, 2017. The lawsuit was amended on Nov. 17, 2017, adding 21 unnamed members of the Waverly Heights board.
A district court dismissed the complaint on April 9, 2018. On appeal, a district court denied Jungclaus’ claim on Feb. 9, finding that Waverley Heights had “valid, non-discriminatory reasons” for its decision to fire her.
