A museum worker whose social media posts were littered with typos was unfairly dismissed after her employer failed to properly follow its performance policy, a tribunal has found.
Anita Briggs worked for National Museums Scotland, and was responsible for creating Facebook, LinkedIn and X posts for her employer.
She was dismissed after failing three performance reviews, having only posted six posts one month compared to 73 by a colleague. She would also regularly miss deadlines and her posts were full of spelling errors, the tribunal heard.
Briggs had worked for the museum since 2009, and between February 2021 and June 2023, she reported to digital media content producer Russell Dornan. He expressed concerns with her performance and met with her in May 2022 to discuss.
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She was then put on her first informal performance improvement plan (PIP) for six months, but Dornan felt that there had not been a “satisfactory improvement in performance” after the period ended.
The tribunal heard that she was experiencing a “number of challenging personal issues” at the time, and Dornan agreed there could be a further informal performance plan provided a stress risk assessment was undertaken by National Museums Scotland.
This assessment was not carried out until March 2023 after Briggs had been absent from work in December 2022 and January 2023. Briggs then emailed HR at the organisation claiming that Dornan “had it in for me” and that she felt intimidated.
Dornan left the organisation in June 2023 and Briggs then reported to Ms Barton, head of digital media.
Between June and August 2023, Briggs only produced two pieces of content, one of which required a significant amendment. A second PIP had been put in place in June 2023, and Briggs was signed off with work-related stress in early September.
To cover her performance issues and absence, the team had had to enlist the services of social media freelancers and Ms Barton was unable to take annual leave so the content production could meet targets, the tribunal heard.
Briggs attended a welfare check-in on 4 October 2023, where she admitted to work-related anxiety. When she returned to work a week later, Barton informed her that she had not met the requirements in her second PIP, and this would now become a formal PIP between October 2023 and January 2024.
At the end of this process, she was warned, the outcome could be dismissal. She was provided with a phased return-to-work plan and guidelines for areas of improvement.
She continued to under-produce social media posts despite regular one-to-one meetings offering support and having her historic workload removed.
Briggs asked for another stress risk assessment in December 2023, where she stated her main source of anxiety was the PIP process. Her PIP was reviewed in January where Barton told her she did not have confidence in her ability to carry out her role.
A formal hearing took place in February, where she was notified that her employment was being terminated on grounds of lack of capability.
Briggs appealed the decision but this was dismissed, so she launched an employment tribunal claim for unfair dismissal. She claimed there had been a “long-standing orchestrated campaign to terminate her employment”.
She won her claim on a procedural error – that National Museums Scotland had failed to give her a formal warning prior to her dismissal.
National Museums Scotland argued that this had been the case, but the Judge pointed out that its own performance policy required that formal warnings be given in an escalatory fashion (first written, final written, and so on), and this had not been the case.
In his ruling Employment Judge Nielson said: “The tribunal concludes that it is not [a fair dismissal] as there were no formal warnings issued in terms of the Performance Policy.
“[Ms Briggs] has a legitimate expectation that the [museum] will follow the terms of the Performance Policy and it would be reasonable to expect at least one level of formal warning prior to dismissal. That did not happen here.”
Briggs was awarded a total of £22,210.75 for loss of pay and pension contributions and to compensate for reduced pay and benefits she received in a fixed-term role at Edinburgh University after her dismissal.
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