Tribunal told of sugar in fuel tank
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• A Birmingham Industrial Tribunal rejected a redundancy pay claim last week by six drivers who had worked at a depot where, it had been alleged, sugar was poured into a fuel tank during a strike.
Mr N. Carless, representing the company, L. C. Hunt and Sons (Transport) of Aston, said that on August 16 1971, there took place what the management considered to be a one-day strike by the company's 10 drivers owing to a disputed pay claim. When men had refused to return to work because their claim was refused, an ultimatum was issued that unless they resumed work by August 23 they would be deemed to have terminated their employment. This, in fact, was What had happened and the men's cards were sent to the Department of Social Security.
The managing director, Mr William Hunt, had complained in a letter to the TGWU, that he had been threatened with violence and obstructed by strikers' cars.
At the hearing one of the men claimed that the drivers had returned to the depot intending to work after the one-day strike but had been turned away by Mr Hunt.
Mr R. E. Chapman, chairman of the Tribunal, said he accepted the opinion of Mr Hunt that the men had returned to the depot to picket rather than to work. The Tribunal had decided to reject the claim. The men had repudiated their contract of employment by not returning to work in response to the management's ultimatum and by aying they would not return on their old terms of employment.