Member wins at Employment Tribunal

A UCATT member in the Wales and South West region has won £12,794.73 at an Employment Tribunal for unfair dismissal and age discrimination.

The member had worked for his employer for 6 years as a road maintenance operative and was aged 60 when they decided to dismiss him.

Before his dismissal, he had worked alongside a much younger colleague. His colleague had joined the company in approx 2001 only to leave in August 2006, and return a couple of weeks later.

On 15/9/06, the UCATT member received a redundancy notice. His younger colleague did not. He was made redundant a week later and decided to appeal. His appeal was unsuccessful, however he decided to continue his case and presented it to an Employment Tribunal. During this period his younger colleague took on all of his tasks and workload.

The Employment Tribunal concluded that:

He had been unfairly dismissed on the basis that there was no proper procedure/criteria and was awarded £8746.75

There was a separate issue in respect of travel money that had been unlawfully deducted and was awarded £832.20

He had been discriminated against because of his age. His selection for redundancy when a younger colleague had not even received a Notice was evidence of direct discrimination and was now performing his job. For this he was awarded £3215.78.

It total, UCATT ensured that the UCATT member received a total award of £12,794.73.