A SACKED town council clerk could not face speaking to his employers on the phone after an illness left him with a severe stammer, a tribunal heard.
Andrew Rimmer was dismissed by Lymington and Pennington Town Council in October last year following several periods of sick leave after he had suffered a heart attack.
The tribunal panel heard how Mr Rimmer was suffering from depression and anxiety that was so severe he could not even face opening letters from his bosses to discuss his absenteeism.
Speaking on the second day of the hearing, which took place at Duke’s Keep, Southampton, his partner Jill Ellaway said she was acting like a go-between because he could not face speaking on the telephone.
Giving evidence, she said her husband’s employers had written to him to request a meeting about his job, but had never tried to call.
She said: “He had a severe stammer due to his medication.
The problem was he was unable to answer the telephone due to his anxiety. There was no suggestion that they wanted to communicate with us in any way. I thought I did everything in my power to keep the council notified of his condition.
“He was certainly very keen to get back to work after his heart attack.”
Mr Rimmer returned to work on a part-time basis but was forced to take sick leave again for the first two weeks of April after suffering from anxiety and depression, the panel heard.
At the beginning of July he began continual sick leave. But Mr Rimmer said that during his periods of illness no one attempted to contact him.
The tribunal was told how Mr Rimmer was dismissed, despite his absence, from his £37,500-ayear job on October 17 following a meeting of a specially formed sub-committee.
Giving evidence, Lymington and Pennington councillor Mike Thorp told how the open-ended power of the sub-committee that sacked Mr Rimmer was “intolerable”.
He said: “We never voted to sack Mr Rimmer. The powers were too great for that subcommittee.
They should have held a full council meeting.”
As previously reported in the Daily Echo, the town council is said to have sacked Mr Rimmer because of his illness, despite there being no written sickness policy document which it adhered to.
Council chiefs claim services had started to suffer in his absence, including employees being overpaid and the council’s annual budget not being prepared.
Mr Rimmer, of Fennel Gardens, Lymington, claims unfair dismissal. The tribunal is due to conclude today.
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