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Three strikes and out
Page 18
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The Cardiff Employment Tribunal has ruled that Norbert Dentressangle was entitled to sack truck driver Gareth Pugh for crashing his truck three times in two months.
The tribunal heard that Pugh, of Durham Road, Newport, had been working for the company for five years: he had been given written warnings after two separate incidents in April and May 2000. He was dismissed after crashing through a security barrier.
Norbert Dentressangle UK Operations Manager Clive Kinsey said that on 28 April 2000 at one of the company's sites in Chepstow, Pugh reversed his tractor in an effort to avoid another vehicle which was reversing towards him but hit a pillar, causing damage to the front wing of the vehicle. He failed to fill in an accident report form but claimed that he did inform fitters in the workshop.
In the second incident, on 9 May, Pugh was reversing his vehicle when the trailer collided with a tractor belonging to a subcontractor which was parked in the company's Newport depot.
Pugh was issued with warnings for both incidents, the second being a final written warning. '`All accidents and incidents have to be reported," Kinsey told the hearing. "I deemed the first incident to be careless and negligent"
The incident which led to Pugh's dismissal occurred in July at the Golden Wonder warehouse in Corby, Northants. Kinsey said that Pugh had driven up to the lowered barrier, where a security guard checked the seal on the back of his vehicle before raising the barrier and allowing the truck to proceed. Pugh had claimed he couldn't see whether the barrier was up or dawn and had assumed it was up, driving straight through it fl his artic.
"I didn't accept that this was a genuine or innocent mistake but was a further incidence of carelessness," said Kinsey. "I didn't feel there was any alternative but to dismiss Gareth for misconduct."
Pugh said that his managers had been "out to get him" and claimed they had thought he was a troublemaker since he took on the role of drivers' representative. He cited other drivers who, he claimed, had been involved in collisions but had not received a warning, including one who had two accidents in the same day.
"They said I was always complaining and that I was a troublemaker," Kinsey told the tribunal. "But I was telling them what was thinking rather than just shutting up and letting them get an with it."
He criticised training manager Montgomery Lloyd, saying: "I didn't get on with him and everybody knew that." He conceded that the first two incidents were his responsibility, but said he didn't believe the incident with the barrier was his fault "The barrier was too low and I couldn't see it," he explained, but he admitted that he didn't lean forward to see if it was down. "I just assumed it had been put up," said Pugh, who had visited the yard concerned on more than 20 previous occasions.
The tribunal heard.how Pugh sent the managers who dismissed him a postcard from his holiday in the Algarve which was addressed to: "Kinsey, Jackson and 'can't-drive' Monty,". It had arrived just before his appeal hearing before two of those managers. The card is understood to have read: "No barriers, no accidents, no worries, temperature in the 90s. From Your Favourite Driver."
When asked if he thought it was a wise move to send that card with his appeal pending, Pugh said: 'if you've gat a sense of humour, yes. It was meant for all the boys but it was never put up on the board for them."
Tribunal chairman Stuart Williams said: "We cannot find that the dismissal was unfair. The procedure adopted was a fair and reasonable one and the result was one with which we could not quarrel."