A cyclist who was fired from her job after a picture of her giving President Trump a middle-finger salute as his motorcade passed her in Virginia last year is suing her former employers for unfair dismissal.
Mother-of-two Juli Briskman, aged 50, revealed yesterday on Twitter that she had launched a lawsuit against government contractor Akima, with the filing available here.
I was fired from my job for flipping off @realDonaldTrump. Today, I filed suit with @GellerLawyers & @protctdemocracy because what happened to me was unlawful and un-American.
— juli_briskman (@julibriskman) April 4, 2018
She said that in forcing her to resign from her post after the photo taken by a White House press photographer went viral, the company had acted in an “unlawful and un-American” manner.
Following the incident last November, Briskman used the photograph as her profile picture on her Twitter and Facebook pages.
Lone cyclist responds to @POTUS motorcade shortly after departing Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Va. (Photo: @b_smialowski/@AFP) pic.twitter.com/MKM1kVIyTY
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) October 29, 2017
But Akima said that using the picture in such a way was a breach of its social media policy for employees, and that its business with government agencies could be affected.
> “You’re fired!” – Cyclist who gave Trump the middle gets the sack
At the time, Briskman, who had worked there for six months in in marketing and communications, told the Huffington Post: “They said ‘We’re separating from you’.
“You can’t have ‘lewd’ or ‘obscene’ things on your social media – so they were calling flipping him off ‘obscene’.”
Virginia is classified as an ‘employment at will’ state – meaning employers can terminate someone’s employment at any time and on any grounds.
Briskman highlighted however that the company did not seem to be consistent in its approach to social media.
She highlighted the instance of one male co-worker who had referred to someone on Facebook as “a fucking Libtard asshole” but kept his job.
“How is that any less ‘obscene’ than me flipping off the president?” she asked. “How is that fair?”
Recalling the moment that made her an internet sensation, the registered Democrat voter said: “He was passing by and my blood just started to boil … I’m thinking, he’s at the damn golf course again.
“I flipped off the motorcade a number of times.
“I’m angry about where our country is right now,” she added.” I am appalled. This was an opportunity for me to say something.”
A crowdfunding page set up by a well-wisher last November has so far raised more than $134,000 against an initial target of $100,000, with fresh donations being made over the past day following news of her lawsuit.
28 thoughts on “Cyclist sacked for flipping Donald Trump the bird sues ex-employer for wrongful dismissal”
“in forcing her to resign
“in forcing her to resign from her post” – so, didn’t actually sack her? Might cause her a problem. Unfortunately.
brooksby wrote:
That’s constructive dismissal so not too bad.
How stupid is she? She worked
How stupid is she? She worked in Marketing and posted a controversial image that her contract didn’t allow. This is nothing to do with free speech, but everything about not going against your employment contract.
I hope she loses, even though I agree with her initial gesture.
hawkinspeter wrote:
How stupid is her co-worker, who posted an even more offensive message and who didn’t lose his job?
If you have a policy, you enforce it equally. If this company didn’t do that then I hope she takes them to the cleaners.
Peowpeowpeowlasers wrote:
Didn’t her co-worker just comment on someone else’s post rather than posting an obscene image? I doubt she’ll win.
hawkinspeter wrote:
Apparently the colleague posted some offensive language on FB under their own name, and were wrist-slapped and told to delete it.
The woman in the story is alleging that her employers were afraid that the US Govt might bring pressure to bear on the company as “punishment” for one of their employees making a rude gesture at The Donald. I think they had Govt contracts.
Be very grateful that we do
Be very grateful that we do not have Virginia-type employment laws here where “employers can terminate an employee at any time and on any ground”!!
Jem PT wrote:
Indeed, although you can still get into trouble for what you share with the world under your own name about your employer’s clients on social media!
Jem PT wrote:
With what is going on in the UK at the moment, “red tape” like employment rights will be the first thing to go under the current government.
I hope this lady wins her case as it appears her employer is being inconsistent with their own rules.
sam_smith wrote:
Let’s turn the drama down a bit, eh.
There’s enough to condemn the shower of shit in power: the state of the NHS, schools funding, the shambles of rail contracts and the dire attitude to cyclists from the transport ministers, cuts to police funding being linked by various sources to the London murder rate. That’s before we even get to the likes of May and BoZo’s personal failings.
Making stuff up about an unlikely post-Brexit dystopia (employment rights will ‘go’ ? Really?) is an unhelpful distraction from how godawful they actually ARE.
davel wrote:
I’m not sure its wildly making something up, I am sure I have seen a quote from one of the cabinet team about the UK needing to loosen its employment rights in order to compete globably. Was it Ian Duncan Smith maybe?
I am aware that the UK has previously been the strongest opponents of employment right laws proposed by the EU, so I think there are certainly grounds to remain alert, if maybe not be concerned.
Jimmy Ray Will wrote:
It’s by no means a defence of the current bunch, or a call for complacency. I’m under no illusion that they want to strengthen worker rights. I’m confident they’ll be royally fucking Brexit up beyond what we can see.
Merely saying there’s enough actual shit to charge them with, without resorting to speculation like “employment rights will be the first thing to go under the current government”.
sam_smith wrote:
We don’t need Brexit to have decreased employment rights. It was the Tories in the coalition who increased the time period before you can claim unfair dismissal, and Labour who pushed through the Equality Act who made it more difficult to combine different forms of discrimination in one claim such as ageism and sexism. It also took a large union to force the Tories to stop charging employment tribunal fees.
Given the American legal
Given the American legal system, anything is possible, but I hope she wins, purely on the grounds that if Trump comes to the UK, I’ll be doing the same thing, with several hundred thousand other people.
burtthebike wrote:
I prefer this method:
burtthebike wrote:
Edgy.
burtthebike wrote:
Oh, don’t worry. Once Brexit has happened, your employer will be able to sack you for any reason whatsoever. The ‘Leave’ neo-fascists will be rejoicing.
When, that is, they’re not chasing blacks, Muslims, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Indians down the street, and coshing them to the ground in full view of the police.
What, you thought Brexit was about ‘taking back control’? Well, it was in a way. Taking back the abiility to sink the boot into minorities the way this shithole of a third world kleptocracy has been doing for five hundred years or more.
Legs_Eleven_Worcester wrote:
This is a cycling website, take your polictical views and post them on the miriad of available sites catered for politics
Not here
CXR94Di2 wrote:
Myriad. Is English not your first language?
Legs_Eleven_Worcester wrote:
This is a cycling website, take your polictical views and post them on the miriad of available sites catered for politics
Not here
CXR94Di2 wrote:
Myriad. Is English not your first language?
Legs_Eleven_Worcester wrote:
London……non-whites being killed by……non-whites. Must be a pre-Brexit thing, you know, get some black on black killing in before all the whites get in on it post-Brexit.
I can’t wait for Brexit, getting my lynching tree ready and everything.
Or maybe life will just go on as normal. If it’s too third world for you, you could always move?
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
get this racist crap off this site.
As pointed out by others, this is a CYCLING forum, but this comment would also be offensive (& illegal?) anywhere
I have yet to decide, do I
I have yet to decide, do I shout Trump’s own “very stable genius” or go with Lil Kim’s “mentally deranged US dotard”
Quote:
OT, but are there *any* photos, *anywhere*, of The Donald looking responsible and all Presidenty?
She should have given him the
She should have given him the wanker sign, it’d be hard to pull her up for simply telling the truth.
But the official stats from
But the official stats from the Met do point to a problem within the black community;
[i]The official figures, which examine the ethnicity of those accused of violent offences in London, suggest the majority of men held responsible by police for gun crimes, robberies and street crimes are black. Black men are also disproportionately the victims of violent crime in the capital. The statistics, released by the Metropolitan Police, permit an informed debate on a sensitive subject for the first time. One prominent black politician said that the black community needed to face up to major challenges. Shaun Bailey, a Tory election candidate in London and a charity worker, said: “The black community has to look at itself and say that, at the end of the day, these figures suggest we are heavily – not casually – involved in violent crime. We are also involved in crime against ourselves – and we regularly attack each other.”
doesn’t make someone racist to simply talk about the facts, I suspect that Yorkshire Wallet was using that fact and being sarcastic regarding post brexit…
PP
Thank god your sarcasm meter
Thank god your sarcasm meter is working Pete. Just not sure what UK Legs11 is living in, in which whites are gearing up, ready for Brexit and chasing minorities down the street.
Anyway, cycle on Bill and Ted.