Case 4107516/2019 · Employment Tribunal

Mr X v Western Buses Ltd — 2020

Case reference: 4107516/2019
Decision date: 23 March 2020
Jurisdiction: Scotland
Judge: Employment Judge L Wiseman
Venue: Glasgow

Indexed: 22 May 2026

Parties

2 named

Claimant

Mr X

Respondent

Western Buses Ltd

Key findings

Tribunal's reasoning

The claimant, a bus driver employed since March 2003, was contacted by police on 5 March 2019 about historic allegations and was required to appear at Dundee Sheriff Court on 12 March 2019. He did not inform the respondent before the court appearance. After returning to work on 13 March and then going on holiday, he tried to arrange a meeting with Operations Manager Mr Smith to explain the matter. A disciplinary meeting followed on 4 April 2019, and the respondent summarily dismissed him for gross misconduct. The appeal stages were heard by Ms Alison McCluskie and then Ms Fiona Doherty, both of whom rejected the appeals.

Claims and outcomes

1 finding recorded

Claim type	Issue or finding	Outcome	Protected characteristic	Award
Unfair dismissal	The tribunal found the dismissal unfair because the decision to dismiss had been predetermined before the disciplinary hearing and the respondent had not properly investigated a potentially mitigating issue raised by the claimant, namely his attempt to contact Mr Smith during his holiday to arrange a meeting. The tribunal nevertheless found that the respondent had reasonable grounds to believe the claimant had failed to notify the depot manager of the court appearance on 12 March 2019 and had used sickness reporting to attend court, and it reduced compensation for Polkey and contributory conduct.	Upheld	—	£2,082

Remedy

Monetary award

Total award: £2,082; across all upheld claims
Basic award: £1,829; statutory, unfair dismissal
Compensatory award: £253; compensatory remedy recorded

Legal tests applied

9 references

Official outcome judgment PDF

Gov.uk primary record

The official judgment PDF on gov.uk contains the tribunal's outcome, reasoning, and any remedy details. Where this page does not yet show extracted outcomes for every claim, use the PDF as the authoritative source.

Open official judgment PDF on gov.uk

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How we got this data

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