Talk about ‘loose lips’: Facebook post scuttles bias settlement
We’re betting there’s one employer in Florida who’s feeling pretty lucky right now. And we’d also wager there’s a college kid in the Sunshine State who won’t be taking any European trips this year.
A former headmaster for a Florida prep school sued for age discrimination and retaliation when his contract wasn’t renewed.
Eventually, the school and the former employee settled the suit — to the tune of $90k (with $80,000 going to the former worker as a “1099?” — plus $60,000 in attorney’s fees.
The settlement contained a very strict confidentiality agreement — including a provision that said even acknowledging the existence of the settlement would cost the former employee a whooping $80K.
‘Paying for my vacation … SUCK IT’
Everything about this case seemed pretty cut-and-dried … until the former headmaster’s daughter and social media were added to the mix.
Following the agreement, the former worker’s daughter posted this charming statement on her personal Facebook page, which went out to approximately 1,200 Facebook friends:
Mama and Papa Snay won the case against Gulliver. Gulliver is now officially paying for my vacation to Europe this summer. SUCK IT.
Just four days after the settlement was signed (and before the school made any payments), the school let the former employee know he’d breached the settlement agreement with his daughter’s Facebook post.
The school wound up withholding $80K from the settlement, and the former employee sued to get the rest of his settlement money.
But the court was with the company on this one because:
Before the ink was dry on the agreement, and notwithstanding the clear language of section 13 mandating confidentiality, Snay violated the agreement by doing exactly what he had promised not to do. His daughter then did precisely what the confidentiality agreement was designed to prevent, advertising to the Gulliver community that Snay had been successful in his age discrimination and retaliation case against the school.
Let’s hope all the “likes” the headmaster’s daughter garnered with her comment were worth the $80k hit.
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