Glasgow postman sacked for leaving early to pick up child wins tribunal

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 21 Oct 2017, 11:44

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/1561 ... _tribunal/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A POSTMAN who was sacked for not delivering parcels found out he was in trouble when his boss turned up outside his child's nursery.

James Junnor was confronted by line manager Gordon Carson as he picked his son up from his daycare centre and asked why the job had gone unfinished.

Mr Junnor, who has been awarded more than £3,000 after winning a claim for wrongful dismissal, offered to put his child back into nursery and deliver the packages.

But he was suspended the next day and sacked just eight days before Christmas after an investigation found he had intentionally delayed mail from being delivered.

An employment tribunal heard that Mr Junnor worked as a postman in Glasgow for 17 years, delivering letters and parcels door to door in the Pollok and Bellahouston areas alongside a colleague who drove the post van.

Last November a problem with a delivery vehicle at his sorting office caused a delay in mail being portioned, and a number of parcels were left over.

Postal staff working that day, including Mr Junnor and his driver Michael Dorrian, were told if they could not deliver the packages in time they could work overtime to finish the job if they wished.

Mr Junnor took this to mean that the parcels could be sorted and left to deliver the next day, and left for his rounds. Because postmen work until they have delivered their allotted mail they are allowed to leave before their official finish time, and he completed his tasks with an hour and half left before he was due to clock off.

However, back at the depot Mr Carson and another manager, Sean Broadley, had become concerned that the parcels had not been delivered.

They contacted the Delivery Section manager, who advised them to wait and see if Mr Junnor and Mr Dorian came back from their round.

But Mr Carson decided to go and check the nursery attended by Mr Junnor's son to see if he arrived there before 2pm.

In her judgement, employment judge Susan Walker wrote: "When the claimant [Mr Junnor] came out of the nursery with his son, he met Gordon Carson. They had a discussion in which Mr Carson told they claimant he had been told to leave them.

"The claimant asked if he could "fix it" if he put his son back into nursery and delivered the parcels. Gordon Carson said this would be fine."

However, when Mr Junnor contacted Mr Dorrian to go back to the depot, he was told to go home.

An investigation was launched the next day, and with both suspended on full pay. The next month Mr Junnor was fired for gross misconduct, while Mr Dorrian was allowed to keep his job.

Giving her ruling, Judge Walker said: "I have accepted on the balance of probabilities that whatever instruction was in fact given, the claimant believed that the instruction given was to "sort and leave" the parcels.

"This was an unusual instruction and it would have been better if the claimant had queried it. However, on this unusual day where the situation was quite chaotic, the claimant believed his manager had made a decision about the mail that the parcels had to wait till tomorrow.

"As far as he understood, the decision about the parcels was made and he was following instructions. I do not therefore accept there was intentional delay of mail."

She awarded Mr Junnor damages of £3,444, the equivalent of 12-weeks pay.

A Royal Mail spokeswoman said: “We are disappointed that we lost the wrongful dismissal part of this case when it came before the Employment Tribunal, but are pleased with the finding that there was no unfair dismissal. The matter is now closed.”

daveyeff · Post by **daveyeff** » 21 Oct 2017, 15:09

wrongful dismissal/unfair dismissal....it was wrong to dismiss him but it wasn't unfair? can anyone explain?

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 21 Oct 2017, 15:20

Wrongful dismissal is when the dismissal is in breach of an employment contract.

Unfair dismissal is when the dismissal is against statutory rights rather than contractual.

So the tribunal believed that instant dismissal was wrong because RM didn't prove "Intentional Delay", but that they could have dismissed him with notice.

datasaint · Post by **datasaint** » 21 Oct 2017, 16:07

Can somebody explain how his van share partner, the driver kept his job. Surely there is a joint responsibility to the mail in a van share.

If the person in question who got sacked was the walker, how could you reasonably expect him to go back out and deliver parcels?

I think there are elements missing from this story as to what really took place.

fishtank · Post by **fishtank** » 21 Oct 2017, 16:24

norm wrote:Can somebody explain how his van share partner, the driver kept his job. Surely there is a joint responsibility to the mail in a van share.

If the person in question who got sacked was the walker, how could you reasonably expect him to go back out and deliver parcels?

I think there are elements missing from this story as to what really took place.

I'm only guessing but their thinking would be that the van driver was not aware of the situation with the parcels. At the end of the day if you leave anything then finish an hour and a half early you're asking for trouble. Dismissal seems harsh although we don't know the history.

wannabeek · Post by **wannabeek** » 21 Oct 2017, 16:45

'Postal staff working that day, including Mr Junnor and his driver Michael Dorrian, were told if they could not deliver the packages in time they could work overtime to finish the job if they wished.

Mr Junnor took this to mean that the parcels could be sorted and left to deliver the next day, and left for his rounds. ... and he completed his tasks with an hour and half left before he was due to clock off.'

Sounds like they were probably both on very dodgy ground. Quite possible the only reason the other guy didn't get fired was simply that he didn't get caught knocking off early.

Maybe he was still out delivering or maybe he was just hiding up somewhere until his finish time. I'm surprised they fired him so suddenly, I reckon there must be more behind the story.

I'm also surprised the judge found in his favour tho - don't we all know by now that knocking off early and leaving mail can get you fired?

DirtyHarry · Post by **DirtyHarry** » 21 Oct 2017, 17:25

daveyeff wrote:wrongful dismissal/unfair dismissal....it was wrong to dismiss him but it wasn't unfair? can anyone explain?

It was known as having your cake and eating it, in my day.

hans solo · Post by **hans solo** » 21 Oct 2017, 18:04

manager today in ours told staff if you take out lapsing and finish early you can go home
pot and kettle
rm bastard mgmt again

fishtank · Post by **fishtank** » 21 Oct 2017, 18:16

hans solo wrote:manager today in ours told staff if you take out lapsing and finish early you can go home
pot and kettle
rm bastard mgmt again

You know the drill.
Ask for that in writing.

walkthewalk · Post by **walkthewalk** » 21 Oct 2017, 19:23

Anybody else who also feels really proud to work for such a compassionate employer and come to that a manager who could have given the father a telling off instead of a postie being sacked days before Christmas I just feel this a a very sad situation and one that tells you all one thing, give your employer nothing to go on so that they can not sack you in this cut throat environment we all work in, I am so disappointed in Royal Mail as an employer

borgpicard · Post by **borgpicard** » 21 Oct 2017, 20:41

Sto advertising family friendly duties, because they aint. trades discription act springs to mind.

chuckychucks · Post by **chuckychucks** » 22 Oct 2017, 11:12

Family friendly's are a joke, totally one sided in the employers favor, too many gray areas ..as soon as business needs are cited that's the end of it for the employee, only option is to leave if you can't find a solution to your childcare problems.

Also this guy winning £3k at the tribunal ..big deal, that's hardly gonna last for long if he has a mortgage or other bills to pay

Newbie001 · Post by **Newbie001** » 22 Oct 2017, 12:32

Don't usually defend managers. And have heard one of the managers mentioned is a nasty piece of work. But finishing an hour and a half early when you've left all your parcels, guy gave them all the ammunition they needed. They don't need much of an excuse to get rid of a full-timer nowadays. Glasgow being one of the worst areas for ft/pt ratio anyway.

magicw · Post by **magicw** » 22 Oct 2017, 18:51

Showed up at the Guys kids nursery! How the hell was he Privy to that information and doesn't it constitute an invasion to private life? ( Pretty sure most of our managers wouldn't get DBS clearance to allow them within 100 metres of a Kids nursery)

meercat · Post by **meercat** » 23 Oct 2017, 18:57

17 years service and sacked a week before Xmas for leaving some packets for the next day? WOW.

As we know managers leave packets all the time around Xmas, yorks and yorks of them are left some for up to a week yet that's not an issue?

Did he get his job back?