Driver 'did not threaten violence'
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Stonehaven-based Key Carriers (Scotland) has been ordered to pay one of its former drivers 12,161.60 com pensation for unfair dismissal.
Making the claim, driver Ronald McIntosh said he had been asked to lift unreasonably heavy weights, and had told the company he had a back problem. He was told that he should go home if he could not do the job; the following day he was called into the office and suspended.
McIntosh said he left the office with the intention of speaking to the drivers' representative, but was followed by transport director Jonathan Birmingham, who asked him to leave without speaking to anyone. Birmingham had said he would throw him out if need be, and laid hands on him; McIntosh was then dismissed.
The Glasgow Industrial Tribunal heard that McIntosh had been employed by the company since early 1990, before being dismissed in April 2000. He had been off sick for two months, and on his return in early March 2000 was told he would not be, returning to the run he had been employed on for some years, as it had been allocated to another driver. Instead, he would be employed on comparatively local runs.
At the end of March McIntosh was asked to carry out a delivery in Dundee. He became upset and said he was not prepared to do it. An argument with Birmingham developed, with both parties using "industrial" language. McIntosh said he had a sore back, which Birmingham felt was simply an excuse. McIntosh went home and the following day was told by Birmingham that he was suspended until the company's directors had decided what they ought to do.
When Birmingham followed McIntosh out of the office, McIntosh asked if he was going to throw him off the premises and Birmingham replied he would if he had to. Birmingham then got hold of McIntosh's shoulder or upper arm and McIntosh told Birmingham to take his hands offer he would break his neck. He was then escorted off the premises.
McIntosh was asked to attend a disciplinary hearing, at the conclusion of which he was dismissed for gross misconduct on the basis of using threatening behaviour towards a director of the company.
Holding that the company had not acted reasonably, Tribunal members said they were not satisfied that a driver with 10 years' service and only the odd argument with his superiors in that time deserved dismissal for the events that had taken place at the end of March.
Had the company considered the matter properly it could not reasonably have concluded that McIntosh was guilty of threatening behaviour. McIntosh had denied threatening Birmingham with physical violence and the company could not have reasonably concluded he intended a physical assault.