UK IT Worker Loses Appeal Over Sacking for Sending Romantic Messages to Colleague

In a recent ruling, the UK Employment Appeal Tribunal has upheld the dismissal of Elrich Daudet, a former senior computer analyst at Computacenter (UK) Ltd. Daudet had been sacked in 2022 for gross misconduct after sending romantic messages and poems to a female colleague, claiming they had met in his dreams. He argued that he possesses prophetic dreams and that the colleague had appeared to him months before they met, serving as a muse for his poetry and songwriting. However, the colleague complained about Daudet's behavior, stating that he was 'doing her head in' with his messages, including one that compared her scent to 'flowers in the Garden of Eden.' Following an internal investigation, Computacenter dismissed Daudet, and he subsequently sought compensation for unfair dismissal, harassment, and race and religious belief discrimination. The employment tribunal rejected his claims in 2024, stating that his belief in prophetic dreams did not qualify as a protected philosophical belief under UK equality law. Daudet appealed the decision, but Employment Appeal Tribunal Judge Lord Fairley upheld the earlier ruling, finding no legal error in the tribunal's decision. Lord Fairley stated that the colleague felt uncomfortable with Daudet's messages, which were 'amorous in nature' and 'objectively sexual.' The judge also rejected Daudet's argument that his communications were an expression of a protected belief, stating that 'the tribunal's conclusion that the purported belief wasn't protected discloses no error of law.' With this ruling, Daudet's legal challenge against his former employer has come to an end.