Ferrymasters find 'loving is hard to do
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LORRY driver sacked by Ferrymasters Ltd has been awarded 5,230.80 compensation for unfair dismissal by a Leicester industial tribunal.
Mr J. D. Slater had worked at le company's Desborough delot until it had closed down in lovember 1980. The managenent agreed with his trade inion that the drivers being nade redundant by the closure ould apply for relocation at other depots. Twelve drivers ;hosen by seniority could live ;ome distance from their new lepots and when necessary park heir lorries near their homes. Mr Slater did not qualify as one yf the 12. The company maintained that it was agreed that all the other drivers to be relocated should move to the area of the depot to which they were being transferred. It was said that "area" was understood to mean within 25 miles radius.
The tribunal said that the written agreement between the company and the union made no reference to any such requirement. The company had made no move to communicate such a requirement to the drivers being relocated. They left it entirely to the shop steward to tell the drivers the terms of the agreement.
The letter written to Mr Slater informing him of his transfer to Newark made no mention of any such requirement. It did say that he would be paid £10 per week for not more than 26 weeks by way of expenses, by which time the company would have expected him to have moved to the Newark area.
Ferrymasters claimed that Mr Slater did not make sufficient effort to move. He did not apply for a council house until April 1981, which showed unreasonable delay. Mr Slater applied for a council house at Grantham as he did not want to be too far away from Corby where he had lived previously and where there were still members of his family. The company said it had made enquiries which revealed that Mr Slater would have obtained a council house very much more quickly if he had applied in Newark.
The tribunal said that the company had been insisting that Mr Slater should apply for a house in Newark if he wanted to keep his job.
In the tribunal's view, Ferrymasters had failed to show that it had acted reasonably.