• Two bus drivers, sacked following discussions over plans to
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set up a cooperative bus company after privatisation, were unfairly dismissed, an Industrial Tribunal has ruled.
Keith Peacock and Mick Norman had been employed by London Country Buses (North East) and were sacked at the end of June last year for alleged breach of contract and disloyalty.
The tribunal said that discussions had begun on a possible co-operative which was supported by the Harlow Co-operative Development Agency. Attendance by the two applicants at meetings to discuss a possible cooperative was not sufficient to make it reasonable for the employer to use it as a reason to dismiss.
The tribunal also found that the disciplinary proceedings were so flawed that this too would have made it unreasonable for the employers to dismiss the two men. Undisclosed compensation has been agreed between the parties.