Driver's delayed dismissal decision
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• A transport company which could fairly have instantly sacked a driver suspected of theft forfeited its right to dismiss him by delaying its decision for four months.
Despite making that ruling, however, a Nottingham industrial tribunal declined to make any compensatory award to the driver concerned.
It was said that much of P Mann's work at Aylip Transport had been the collection of tyres from the Wolverhampton factory of Goodyear Tyres. On 14 November he had been arrested on suspicion of stealing tyres found fitted to his car. Mann had claimed that they had been on the car when he had bought it in January 1987. In fact they had not been manufactured until July. Mann had been suspended pending the outcome of a police investigation.
The tribunal said that at that stage the company had had reasonable grounds for believing that Mann had come into possession of the tyres in some improper way, and if it had decided to dismiss him, it could not have been said to have been unfair. By deferring its decision for four months, however, the company had allowed Mann to believe that if no prosecution was brought against him he would not lose his job. It had consequently come as a surprise to him when he had been told that he was being dismissed on account of the tyres, although he had produced a letter to the company dated 7 March in which the police had indicated that no futher action was being taken.
The company had kept Mann dangling in suspense for four months without pay, said the tribunal. It felt that a reasonable employer would have acted more swiftly.
Nonetheless, there had been reasonable grounds for dismissal in November. Mann had had no acceptable explanation of how the tyres had come into his possession, and he had effectively caused his dismissal by his own conduct. In those circumstances, the tribunal did not feel that it was fair to award him any compensation.