A Dundee man has been awarded a nearly £230,000 payout after Scotland’s largest energy firm refused to rehire him following a ruling he had been unfairly sacked.
Perth-based Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) was condemned for its treatment of former employee Donald Nutt, with a tribunal judge slamming the company’s human resources process as “reminiscent of a show trial in the former Soviet Union”.
SSE had been ordered following a lengthy tribunal to re-employ Mr Nutt, an energy trader who worked for the firm for 16 years before being dismissed in October 2014, but bosses refused.
The company’s failure to comply with the December 2017 ruling led the tribunal to award Mr Nutt a substantial payout instead, with the initial sum of £136,895 set out for unfair dismal at the first hearing increased to £226,352.14.
SSE claimed Mr Nutt was sacked due to a “breakdown in trust and confidence”, however Judge Ian McFatridge found there had been “genuine unfairness” shown to the worker after he voiced concerns over health and safety and his shifts.
In a written judgement, Judge McFatridge said: “We strongly agree with Mr Nutt’s characterisation of the way he had been treated by HR as being appalling.
“There were many, many examples of extremely poor practice and there had been genuine unfairness to Mr Nutt on a substantial number of occasions.”
The tribunal heard Mr Nutt raised a grievance with bosses following a negative appraisal and an informal warning being issued to him after he raised health and safety concerns. He had previously received positive appraisals for his work.
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Mr Nutt’s complaint was not upheld and disciplinary proceedings were raised by the company after he was later signed off sick with stress, despite maintaining regular contact with HR business partner Emma Illingworth during the long period of illness.
The judgement stated: “Emma Illingworth was demanding that Mr Nutt not only accept throughout that he had been wrong, but also accept a number of factual circumstances that weren’t true – principally that his grievance had been properly investigated.
“It quite clearly had not.
“At many instances during the meeting it appears that SSE not only wished Mr Nutt to acknowledge that he was wrong, but express gratitude to SSE for treating him as they had. This is somewhat reminiscent of a show trial in the former Soviet Union rather than modern employment relations practice.”
Mr Nutt was accused at a disciplinary hearing of “failing to demonstrate SSE values”. However, Judge McFatridge found the allegations against the worker were so vague it would be impossible to hold a fair hearing.
He described the “Kafkaesque” situation of Mr Nutt being forced to argue that he was not argumentative, adding criticism of SSE and Emma Illingworth in particular was seen as “further evidence of his lack of trust and confidence in the company”.
The tribunal found Mr Nutt’s dismissal for continuing to criticise the company and the way he had been treated was “entirely unjustified”.
Judge McFatridge said it was the tribunal’s view that the worker had been “managed out of the business early” because Ms Illingworth “did not know how to properly deal with the issues raised by him”.
