A man in the UK looks likely to get compensation from his former company after he was given the sack for going to the pub while off work sick.
According to the Metro, 66-yr-old Colin Kane is a smoker and allegedly has a serious lung condition. He called Debmat Surfacing in Newcastle, where he had been a driver since 2012, to say he was too unwell to work on March 9th 2020.
That afternoon however, Mr Kane was scene by a work colleague at a social club near work, drinking alcohol and smoking.
When Colin’s boss phoned him, he who told them “he had been in bed all day with his chest.”
The Metro reports that Mr Kane was called to a meeting with his boss who said: ‘Surely if you had been unfit for work and on antibiotics, you shouldn’t be in the pub.’
It’s reported that Mr Kane said he wasn’t in the pub for too long and didn’t think there was anything wrong with going to it.
Disciplinary action was taken against him and he was given the sack last July for dishonesty and breaching the company’s rules.
However, the Metro reports that Judge Andrea Pitt came to the conclusion that he had been unfairly given the sack because the company’s rules did not specifically ban workers from socialising while off sick.
The Metro reports that the Judge said: ‘There is nothing in the disciplinary procedure prohibiting an employee from acting in this way.
The company ‘made a gross assumption, without evidence, that the claimant should not be at the social club because of the nature of his condition.’
She said that the there’s no specific rule that the company can point to which says that an employee cannot socialise while they’re off sick.
A further hearing is due to take place to determine how much compensation Mr Kane will receive, which is believed that it could be quite significant.
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