Stolen truck's driver receives
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compensation
• A driver sacked after he had left his vehicle for a few minutes in the charge of a bystander, during which time it was stolen, has been awarded 2476.25 compensation for unfair dismissal by a Birmingham industrial tribunal.
The tribunal was told that Erne Freight had dismissed Robert Woerner for gross negligence, however the tribunal felt that the company's managing director had failed to investigate the matter sufficiently. He had decided to dismiss Woerner on the basis of what he was told in two short telephone conversations with his junior management and had not seen fit to see or question Woerner before dismissing him. Woerner had been dismissed in the heat of the moment without even contacting the police, who had a full statement concerning the events in question.
No-one had offered Woerner any representation; junior management had waited for him to hitch back from London, saw him in a shaken and distraught state and after only a few words with him related the events to the company's managing director.
In assessing the amount of compensation the tribunal considered that Woerner was 25% to blame for his own dismissal.