LEGAL VICTORIES

Mark Stilwell had been employed by Freightliner since March 1997 at their Cleveland depot when he was dismissed on June 26 2004. Towards the end of his time with Freightliner Mark was employed as a Rail Operations Supervisor. In early May 2004 Mark identified four employees who worked under his responsibility who made “extraordinary efforts” which should be recognised by management and payment made for higher-grade duties. Mark made a request to the Terminal Manager, for additional payment to be made to them, but the request was declined. Mark was concerned about the failure to recognise and reward employees’ hard work so he wrote to them: “I have made several attempts to obtain some form of recognition from the current management team at Cleveland, for your extraordinary efforts over the last two weeks, especially during Monday’s and Tuesday’s Crane failures, unfortunately the most I have been able to achieve is a letter of recommendation which I submitted to the Manager and will now be attached to your personnel file along with a copy of the manager’s response. “A response which I find highly unsatisfactory, therefore, I would like to thank you for all your recent efforts, and especially for your efforts on Monday and Tuesday this week without the level of commitment shown on those days things could have very easily gone pear shaped with great costs being incurred to the company. “I hope you will accept this small token of my appreciation (a case of beer!) and my thanks. Well done!” The terminal manager became aware of this and was unhappy as he felt that it undermined his authority. This was followed by another incident between our member and the terminal manager when Mark was accused of being late. Ignoring all procedures Mark was given a written warning, which he refused to accept as it was outside of the disciplinary procedure. This led to a Form 1 being issued against him that resulted in his dismissal for insubordination and failing to comply with a manager’s request. With the help of the union’s solicitors, Drummond Miller, a claim was made in the Tribunal for unfair dismissal. After a two day hearing the Tribunal found that Mark had been unfairly dismissed. The Tribunal made scathing remarks regarding Freightliner’s failure to follow procedures. “The Employment Tribunal found that Freightliner denied Mark his basic rights to be represented by his union and to follow agreed disciplinary procedures” said David Scott of Drummond Miller Solicitors, who represented Mark. Speaking after the hearing Mark said, “This was really about clearing my name”. RMTnews :: july/august 2005 26 Union wins equal pay victory RMT recently won a significant equal-pay battle after employers agreed to settle the case in the middle of an Employment Tribunal. When a female RMT member agreed to a move from Compliance Assistant to Technical Engineer with a rail infrastructure company she was promised that her salary would be reviewed after six months. However, a review did not take place until much later. Moreover, despite the review confirming that she had reached the required standard, her salary was not reinstated to the level it was. Her employment was then transferred to Network Rail after infrastructure work was brought back in-house. Strong representations were made by union representatives to Network Rail, who continued to refused to increase the member’s wages to the correct level and pay back pay to her. Further investigations revealed that men working at her depot had been reviewed and received pay rises. With the help of union’s solicitors, Drummond Miller, the member was able to pursue a claim for discrimination on the grounds of her sex and unlawful deduction of wages in the Employment Tribunal. Before the hearing commenced its second day an offer of £4,000 was made to her in settlement of her claims. The member, who had subsequently been promoted, accepted the offer. “The union was brilliant throughout this ordeal and I would not be where I am now without the RMT,” she said. “I am happy to now get back to normal and do my job to the best of my abilities”. RMT rep Bill Rawcliffe, who represented her, said it was a clear-cut case of discrimination and justice had been done. “Once again RMT has shown that it protects the rights of its members,” he said. David Scott of Drummond Miller, who represented the member throughout the hearing said: “It was only because of the persistence of the member, her union representatives and the strength of her union that settlement was able to be reached”. SACKED FOR REWARDING STAFF Rail operations supervisor Mark Stilwell was sacked by Freightliner last year, after eight years service, because of a gift to his staff