Driver unfairly dismissed for seeking itemised a
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• A Brighton-based driver has been awarded .£5,129 by an industrial tribunal against her former employer, Stuart Taylor International of Blackburn.
Rachael Webb says the Manchester tribunal on 26 May found that she was unfairly dismissed from employment at Stuart Taylor after asserting her statutory right to have itemised pay statements.
"Stuart Taylor thought it could hire and tire at will," says Webb. "I protested at the lack of procedure and the circumstances under which they dis
missed me, but they fett I did not have a suitable case to take to a tribunal."
Webb had been working with the Blackburn firm for only three months before the incident took place in January this year, She says her victory at tribunal was thanks to her membership of the United Road Transport Union and the advice she received from regional officer Malcolm Williams.
Now she is urging other union drivers to hand union membership application forms to any non-union drivers that they meet. "By increasing union membership we can win small victories against employers who think we just have to take whatever they decide to hand out," says Webb.
Williams warns that Webb's case is not an isolated one. He is currently involved in two similar cases where small hauliers have refused to produce detailed pay slips to drivers.
is Stuart Taylor denies all of Webb's allegations; "I'd rather go to prison than pay," he says. Taylor plans to appeal against the tribunal's decision.