Richard Sharp, Dean Lewis and five other employees at Xylem Water Solutions were sacked after the company uncovered an offensive group chat containing derogatory and racist comments
Two senior male executives who were caught sending offensive messages in a WhatsApp group – including rating women out of ten for their looks – have lost their jobs and failed in a claim for unfair dismissal.
Richard Sharp, general manager for building services at Xylem Water Solutions, and Dean Lewis, managing director of sales and marketing, were dismissed along with five colleagues after the group chat, titled “Xylem Massacre”, came to light. Members of the group had swapped “highly derogatory” sexual comments, including fantasies involving a manager, and circulated a cartoon of Snow White in a sexual pose with Pinocchio, referencing another employee. The messages also contained racist and Islamophobic “jokes”, mocked the firm’s harassment policy, and even included discussion of – and photos from – “upskirting”, where a female co-worker was named.
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The misconduct first came under scrutiny in September 2018 when a whistleblower alerted the wastewater management company. Investigators discovered the messages on a manager’s work phone during a separate inquiry into bullying and harassment. All seven participants were suspended, then sacked on September 28 for gross misconduct.
Mr Sharp and Mr Lewis, who had each worked at Xylem for decades – joining in 1990 and 1982 respectively – later sued for unfair dismissal, claiming the disciplinary process was predetermined. Tribunal evidence showed that HR had begun preparing dismissal notices days before the men were formally told.
The case was first heard in Exeter in 2020, but the judgment was only released this week. Druing the tribunal, employment Judge Hargrove accepted there were “genuine concerns” over how the process was handled, yet ruled the men would have been dismissed in any case and declined to award compensation.