Water company worker sacked following post supporting Israel on October 7 anniversary

The post also included an image of the Israeli flag.

STW said that Joshua – who was employed at the water company under a different name – had previously been reprimanded over a number of inappropriate comments relating to gender, sexuality and race, had been given a final warning and was told not to express his personal opinions on the staff intranet portal.

The JC understands that the firm, which employs 10,000 people, had received hundreds of complaints about Joshua’s conduct, many of which were not related to his post about October 7.

According to The Telegraph, his post was swiftly removed by company managers after internal complaints that it contained “very derogatory words” and was “very one-sided.” One complainant claimed the post “reflects poorly on Severn Trent’s reputation as a diverse and inclusive company.”

STW told the JC that the company rejected “in the strongest possible terms” the suggestion that they supported a particular side of the conflict.

Joshua was suspended with immediate effect and dismissed following a disciplinary hearing.

Speaking to The Telegraph, he claimed: “It happened in a matter of hours. I made the post at 7.50am. I got a call from my manager at 10 or 11am telling me that it had been taken down.

“At 1pm I got called to a meeting room on the site that I was working on. My manager and her manager were there and I was suspended. They didn’t really give an opinion on what I’d wrote. They just said that it was seen as offensive.

“They used the word ‘derogatory’ for the words I had used to describe a terrorist organisation, which shocked me. It seems quite shocking to me. How could it be one-sided or derogatory to oppose a terrorist. Surely this is only one-sided,” Joshua went on.

Joshua was told his language was considered “derogatory” and had caused “significant offence”. Managers said the post had offended employees “with different perspectives, particularly those with Muslim or Palestinian backgrounds.”

During his disciplinary hearing, he was allegedly informed that his post suggested “support of a particular geopolitical stance” and that his assertion that most STW staff supported Israel “creates exclusion and assumptions of solidarity.”

Company managers concluded that Joshua’s comments violated workplace policies on inclusivity, ruling that his offence “relates to a protected characteristic, specifically religious belief,” he claimed.

But Joshua argued that his post made a clear distinction between Islam and Islamist terrorism.

Joshua appealed against his dismissal and was represented by the Free Speech Union but was unsuccessful. He chose not to take the case to an employment tribunal.

Now employed elsewhere, Joshua said the ordeal has “definitely made me think twice about expressing my views in public”.

A Severn Trent Water spokesman said: “The allegations in The Telegraph are not the whole story nor is it an isolated incident. This relates to the conduct of an individual who posted highly charged content on a range of topics from gender to sexuality to race in an online work platform – having previously being warned this wasn’t the appropriate forum to do so.

“As an apolitical organisation the inference that we support any side in any situation is categorically untrue – we reject this suggestion in the strongest possible terms and it is a fact that Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organisation by the UK Government.

“How we treat each other is always a priority, we have a strong culture of inclusion including celebrating Judaism and Jewish festivals. Commentary to purposefully illicit a response hampers our ability to do our jobs, it was the means of expression that was the reason for the disciplinary action not the opinions or beliefs.”