A global tyre manufacturer has been handed a maximum fine after breaching a former Dundee employee’s rights.
It comes after an employment tribunal ruled factory worker Stan Reid had been unfairly dismissed by Michelin, ordering the firm to pay him £30,000 after he was sacked for attending a gin tasting event while off sick after a series of personal tragedies.
Mr Reid had been signed off with stress after his best friend’s son Ralphie Smith died in a cliff fall in Arbroath, before two of his close friends – Julie McCash and David Sorrie – were killed by Robert Stratton at a vigil for the missing teenager in Dundee.
Now, Judge Peter Wallington has imposed a £5,000 fine on the tyre company for breaching Mr Reid’s rights and the series of failures that led them to do so.
The sum is the maximum penalty allowed under section 12A of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996, and is payable to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
Despite being in force since April 2014, it marks the first time the power has been used by an employment judge in Scotland.
Judge Wallington cited two “aggravating factors” – Michelin boss Stuart Duncan deciding Mr Reid should be dismissed prior to his disciplinary hearing and also disregarding a “fit note” from a GP.
Judge Wallington said: “The respondent is a large organisation with sufficient resources to enable it to comply with the basis canons of employment law.”
Michelin has said it is to review its procedures after Mr Reid won his case.