AN INDUSTRIAL tribunal has thrown out an unfair dismissal claim from an employee who accidentally burned down his employer's workshop.
Ian Ormiston, of Trevelyan Place, Pencaitland, East Lothian, had worked with Hugh Baird & Sons Ltd at their Pencaitland plant for more than
29 years when he was sacked last November.
An industrial tribunal in Edinburgh heard the Essex-based company made malted barley for the whisky and beer trade, and that Mr Ormiston worked as a maintenance engineer for them.
Mr Ormiston claimed dismissal wasn't a reasonable response to his ''crime'', and that the company used the fire as a sacking excuse.
On October 27, last year, Mr Ormiston phoned his immediate superior to say the workshop had caught fire, and that he had called the fire brigade.
When the manager arrived at the scene, before the fire brigade, he discovered that the engineer had been welding a car in the workshop and it had caught fire.
The fire brigade arrived and extinguished the blaze, but damage to the workshop was estimated at #10,000. The company suspended Mr Ormiston on full pay pending an investigation.
It emerged that Mr Ormiston had been repairing a hole in the floor of a workmate's son's car. After he started welding, a fire broke out. The fuel pipe from the petrol tank burned through and fed the flames with petrol. Mr Ormiston was sacked for gross negligence after a disciplinary hearing.
In its written decision, the tribunal concluded: ''Any reasonable employer placed in the circumstances in which the respondents were, even taking into account the applicant's length of service and good record, might well have dismissed the applicant.''
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article