Walmart Manager Fired For Anti-Muslim Rant On Facebook

Walmart fired a manager of a New York store after he posted comments on Facebook mocking Muslim customers.

The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations for Walmart brought the Facebook posts to the attention of Walmart and asked the retail giant to discipline the assistant manager of the store in Hamburg, a suburb of Buffalo.

Along with a photograph of two Muslim women in traditional dress, the assistant manager's expletive-filled posting read: "Halloween came early this year. ... Do they really have to ... dress like that.....your in my country....get off!!!"

A spokeswoman for Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart Stores Inc. says company officials looked into the posting immediately upon learning about it and fired the employee. CAIR identified him as Terry Earsing. He apologized when reached by The Buffalo News Wednesday. "I'm truly, honestly sorry about the whole thing. I just apologize. I don't know what else I can say," Earsing told the newspaper. He added that a friend sent him the photo of the Muslim women and he'd posted the comments from home, on his personal time.

Walmart told The Buffalo News, ""We set high expectations for our associates, and this associate clearly failed to meet these expectations at every level."

It's become increasingly common for employers to fire workers for comments posted on social media, even during off hours. When workers have challenged their dismissals and filed complaints with the National Labor Relations Board, they've often lost their cases unless they've been able to prove that they were protesting workplace conditions. For instance, the NLRB upheld the firing of a reporter who tweeted a joke about the lack of homicides ("WTF! No overnight homicides?! You're slacking, Tucson").

This story was supplemented by AOL Jobs staff.