Former McGill Electrical site agent awarded almost £5000 in tribunal
A Dundee site agent has been awarded nearly £5000 for being unfairly dismissed, an employment tribunal in the city has ruled.
- By Andrew Argo
- Published in the Courier : 27.05.11
- Published online : 27.05.11 @ 03.11pm
The amount of compensation to the agent, named as Mr M. Wood, was reduced because the tribunal thought it possible he would have been dismissed had a fair procedure been followed.
Mr Wood was a site agent for McGill Electrical Ltd, of Harrison Road, Dundee. They accepted that Mr Wood had been dismissed but said this had been because of his misconduct and was substantively and procedurally fair.
His dismissal resulted from discrepancies in the timesheets of tradesmen working on council houses in City Road and St Mary's sites last year for which he was responsible. It appeared more work had been performed than had actually been required, in order to charge inflated sums, and McGill's had a
policy which held deliberate falsification of records in the list of offences which amounted to gross misconduct and where the normal consequence would be dismissal.
Management interviewed joiners who said Mr Wood had told them what to put down on their timesheets and to claim extra on flooring.
Mr Wood, who was absent through illness at the time, was asked to attend a "keeping in touch" meeting with the company which he understood was related to his absence.
He was not accompanied at the meeting at which there was a discussion about his blood pressure condition and when he might return. However, the company's operations director then raised the disciplinary allegations.
He was then handed a letter inviting him to a disciplinary hearing a week later, at which he was to answer the allegation of "instructing employees to falsify their timesheets during the course of your business."
Mr Wood was accompanied by a trade union representative at the disciplinary meeting, but did not initially get copies of the tradesmen's statements, did not get copies of timesheets and did not get the opportunity to consider any of the documents with his representative in private.
He denied that he had instructed tradesmen to increase prices and said they could not be telling the truth. Contrary to what had been alleged, he maintained that he had slashed the timesheets.
Maintained defence
At a further disciplinary meeting, more allegations of a similar nature were levelled, and Mr Wood maintained the same defence.
The company could find no evidence to support Mr Wood and dismissed him with effect from October 15 "for instructing employees to falsify their timesheets during the course of your business whilst working on contacts within City Road and St Mary's sites."
An appeal was heard by Sandy McGill, managing director, on November 12 and the original decision was upheld.
In its judgment, the tribunal formed the view that none of the witnesses' evidence was entirely reliable and found fault with the specification in the minutes of disciplinary meetings.
The tribunal concluded that McGill's did not carry out as much investigation as was reasonable in the circumstances since they did not give Mr Wood a proper opportunity to put his side of the case. The dismissal was therefore procedurally unfair. The final settlement was calculated at £4995.38.
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