Private texts transferred to workers' corporate iPads led to wrongful firing, suit claims
Two former employees of Anheuser-Busch claim in a lawsuit that they were wrongly fired for private text messages transferred to a corporate-issued iPad through the iMessaging application.
The suit by former New Jersey employees Victor Nascimento and Audry Yule says their employer discovered texts criticizing fellow employee Alex Davis when the company issued a new iPad to Nascimento and transferred the old one to Davis, the New Jersey Law Journal reports.
The texts, as well as Nascimento’s credit card information, were still on the iPad when it was given to Davis, according to the allegations. Davis discovered the texts and complained.
The suit, filed in January in Hudson County, New Jersey, claims wrongful firing in violation of public policy. A second cause of action alleges violation of New Jersey anti-discrimination law because the plaintiffs were treated differently than African-American workers, one of whom was reprimanded rather than fired for the texts.
Anheuser-Busch is seeking to remove the suit to federal court.
Christopher Lenzo represents the plaintiffs. Lenzo told the New Jersey Law Journal that the complaint is “a novel application of the law” but “I don’t think it’s a stretch.”
“People shouldn’t lose their jobs over what they say in the privacy of their own homes,” he said.
