Driver was 50% to blame for sacking
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• Hull-based IJ Blakey Transport Co has been ordered to pay £2,650 compen sation to driver Colin Taylor after he was sacked for refusing to pick up a return load.
A Hull Industrial Tribunal was told that on Monday 4 November 1991 Taylor had phoned the company to say his wife was ill and he was taking her to the doctor.
The company said that was the last information it received, but Taylor claimed he told them on Thursday 7 November that he wanted to be home on the Friday night because his wife was ill.
Taylor was told to pick up two consignments in London. After doing so he was told that there was a third collection at Walthamstow. When he refused to collect that consignment, he was told by the transport manager, a Mr Harrison, that if he did not pick up the consignment he would not work for the company again. When asked why he would not pick it up, Taylor said: "Because I am not doing it." Taylor drove home on the Saturday and was told to hand in his keys by the general manager, a Mr Pegden, as he had been dismissed by Harrison.
The Tribunal did not consider that the company had acted reasonably. To make a dismissal fair an employer had to investigate the circumstances with care. Though it was satisfied that Harrison genuinely believed Taylor was seriously in breach of his contract of employment. Pegden gave him no chance to give his side of the story. But when setting the level of compensation, the Tribunal assessed that Taylor was 50% to blame.