A technician—working at Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore (FACT)—who had shared certain posts pertaining to safety concerns while handling ammonia at a company unit, was suspended.
The charges leveled against him on 31 July, 2019 were that he had spread false information through the WhatsApp group and had entered an area where he was not authorised to enter.
According to the company, his actions had damaged the reputation of the firm—implying that the workplace wasn’t safe enough—and were in violation of safety protocols. The employee had apologised for his actions and the company had accepted the same. Later, however, he learnt that the company had issued a formal warning as punishment without any formal inquiry. Such an official warning, the employee maintained, could tarnish his track record and career prospects as it would go into his service books. Therefore, he approached the Kerala High Court questioning his suspension and the formal warning.
The Kerala High Court observed that the employee, Sujit TV, had only raised the safety concerns in a private WhatsApp Group, with fellow technicians of the company, which is not wrong. Justice Satish Ninan said that this action of Sujit’s did not deserve the disciplinary action that was taken against him. In fact, as per the Court, the company had curtailed his freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.
The Court felt that before the disciplinary action, there should have been a formal inquiry; and that the employee’s apology did not indicate that he had accepted the charges levelled against him.
The Court did, however, maintain that FACT’s warning for unauthorised entry into the ammonia- handling section was not wrong as it did go against safety protocols.
