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L&Q sacks staff member who tweeted ‘extremely racist and offensive comments’

L&Q has sacked a member of staff who posted “extremely racist and offensive comments” on their own personal Twitter account.

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Picture: Getty
Picture: Getty
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L&Q has fired a member of staff who posted “extremely racist and offensive comments” on their own personal Twitter account #ukhousing

The 95,000-home association confirmed that it had taken “appropriate action” against the staff member following an investigation after being made aware of historic tweets sent by the individual, as well as tweets posted in response to the Black Lives Matter movement.

The association said it could not confirm the final outcome of the process because of confidentiality reasons, but Inside Housing understands that the individual has been dismissed.

The action came after L&Q was made aware of a number of highly offensive tweets. One of these tweets commented on the Black Lives Matter protests at the end of May. A number of other tweets with racist comments towards black people – posted in 2011, 2012 and 2013 – were also uncovered.

L&Q said in a statement that it has a zero-tolerance policy on discrimination of any kind and that all confirmed cases would amount to “gross misconduct”. It added that once it was made aware of the social media posts on Friday 29 May, an investigation in line with employment law was started and disciplinary proceedings began within two hours.


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The association said that the employee who posted on his personal social media account was investigated but that there was no wider investigation. It also confirmed that some of the historic tweets were made before the individual was employed by L&Q.

The revelations came after weeks of anti-racism protests across the world, following the killing of George Floyd while in police custody in the US.

L&Q said: “We are proud to promote equality for people from all backgrounds and there is absolutely no place at L&Q for people who discriminate against others.

“For this reason L&Q has a zero-tolerance policy on discrimination of any kind – whether that be shown through actions or words in the workplace, or made public on social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter.”

Inclusion is one of L&Q’s five core values and the association has policies in place to counter any potential harassment or discrimination.

When asked whether any lessons had been learned or actions taken following the situation, L&Q said that it had communicated with staff to reiterate its values and that it had reminded them that any incidents would be fully investigated.

Mushtaq Khan, interim chief executive of the Housing Diversity Network, said: “We would applaud any landlord that takes swift and decisive action in instances like this. We would highlight the need for employers to review and update their policies on harassment at work and equality and diversity strategies, to make sure that they reflect the current environment. The world around us is changing fast and what’s considered acceptable behaviour in the workplace has altered dramatically.”

Inside Housing is, for the second time, running an anonymous survey to find out about housing professionals’ experiences of discrimination – either what has happened to you, or incidents you have witnessed at work. The survey will close on 17 July. Please go to forms.gle/JeM68YnAcbZcXYzw8 to fill this out and for more information.

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