WATCH ABOVE: Greg Miller criticized local politicians and their decisions in an anonymous Twitter account and says he was fired because of it. His employer claims he was fired for a number of different reasons. Lama Nicolas reports.
TORONTO — A St. Catharine’s man claims he was fired for voicing his personal opinions online, but his employer denies that claim.
“I don’t think my actions, my opinions, have warranted my termination,” Greg Miller says.
Miller says he was called into his boss’s office late Friday afternoon and questioned about comments he made using an anonymous twitter account @NiagaraNext.
“We had a quick conversation about why I created this account, what I said,” Miller says.
“And then it sort of became clear to me they decided to terminate me.”
Miller has been working as a Niagara Region Transit Coordinator for around four years, he adds.
“The swiftness — what was said about why I was being fired has led me to believe it was a political decision rather than a professional one.”
Miller’s comments are critical of some local politicians and their decision.
Miller gives another example where he says, “there’s been some talk about amalgamating Niagara into one community … I blogged about not supporting that idea.”
He also criticized the region’s less than one per cent spending on public transit and accused regional council of being too partisan.
Harry Schlange, Chief Administrative Officer at Niagara Region says, “there was a number of factors, not just what was discussed in making this decision, the comments made you’ve seen in various media outlets, certainly are not reflective of the commitment and values of the corporation.”
His employer denies Miller was fired for political reasons but wouldn’t provide details on exactly why he was let go, citing confidentiality and added that the matter is now closed.
Miller claims he’s never been disciplined and has passed performance reviews in the past.
“It was never my intent to make somebody look bad or harm my employer,” says Miller.
“That was me pining as a citizen, not using information I gathered at work, saying ‘Hey everyone did you know about this?’ All I talked about was already existing public information,” Miller says he set up the Twitter account before he was hired at Niagara region.
He says will be seeking legal advice.
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