'Closed-mind' | BT duo accused of 'inciting violence' against colleague in Teams chat were wrongly sacked

BT unfairly dismissed two call-centre workers after allegations that their Microsoft Teams messages “could be deemed as inciting violence” and, in one case, “inciting violence and hate”, an employment tribunal has ruled.

A judge found that Kasam Khokhar and Lynsey Miller were both unfairly dismissed for gross misconduct, awarding them a combined sum of more than £57,000.

The claims arose after a corporate investigation reviewed Teams messages sent between October 2024 and January 2025, following a report of alleged misuse of BT communications platforms at the Dundee contact centre.

The Teams messages that triggered the investigation

A key incident involved a Teams chat on 22 October 2024. Screenshots presented to the tribunal revealed the following Teams exchange between  between Khokar, Miller and another colleague, Mr L , regarding a colleague identified as ‘A’ in the report:

- Mr L – Here I’d love to boot A full force in the fanny eh.

- Miller – doo it

- Mr L – You just cannae boot a woman in the fud nowadays. World’s gone woke. I miss the good old days where you could belt a lassie for being lippy.

- Miller – I can

- Mr L – Ahhh the ’60s, what a time to be alive.”

The conversation continued and Mr Khokhar replied to the original message posted by Mr L stating: “Second that oops I never said that ha ha ha”.

BT alleged: “Following a team wide investigation carried out by our security team, it was discovered that in October 2024, you made comments within a work Teams chat could be deemed as inciting violence and hate against a fellow BT employee.”

‘No real investigating whatsoever’