BP worker’s downfall: Hitler video sacking ‘harsh’, says legal experts

Legal experts have been left surprised after a BP worker lost his job in court over a Hitler parody video.

The BP technician was sacked after he posted a video in which he changed the subtitles from a popular scene of a ranting Adolf Hitler in the movie Downfall to parody his company’s enterprise bargaining negotiations.

BP said it depicted employees as Nazis.

The worker took the case to the Fair Work Commission but lost, being told “labelling something as a parody is (is not) a ‘get out of jail free card’ and (nor) necessarily means something is not offensive”.

Ross and John, former lawyers themselves, described the ruling as unfair.

And Maurice Blackburn employment law principal Giri Sivaraman said it was “harsh”.

“There’s still got to be room for humour in the Australian workplace,” he said.

“I really don’t understand the decision.”

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