Cameo sacking upheld
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• Though unhappy with the procedure adopted by Cameo Haulage when sacking a driver, a Cardiff industrial tribunal has decided that the dismissal was not unfair.
The tribunal was told that the driver concerned, Peter Ruck, was in Spain when he carelessly allowed petrol instead of gas oil to be put into the tank of the refrigerated unit on his vehicle. He had also failed to comply with in structions to change a defective tyre, with the result that the vehicle was given a prohibition notice in a roadside check. Furthermore, the gearbox of his vehicle was damaged beyond repair in circumstances where the fault should have been noticeable for some time before Ruck actually reported it.
Rejecting Ruck's claim that he was unfairly dismissed, the tribunal concluded he had been dismissed for a mixture of misconduct and incapability. Though Ruck had been given no opportunity of offering an explanation, the tribunal took account of the fact that this was a very small company and that the overwhelming chances were that a reasonable employer would have rejected such explanations as Ruck was able to offer and would still have dismissed him.