First Bus Employee, who called his female manager a “bint”, lost his unfair dismissal claim.
A tribunal for unfair dismissal has ruled that the former employee had discriminated against his boss by using derogatory words in the workplace. It concluded that his dismissal as a “reasonable action”.
Chatterton denied initially sending the derogatory message to his manager
Details of the incident
Scott Chatterton was fired by First Travel Solutions after it became known that he sent colleagues messages calling his manager a “dozybint” and a “dumbo”.
The company said that he violated their policies on workplace bullying, and launched an investigation into his behavior.
Chatterton first denied sending derogatory emails to his manager Dominique Ainscow and offered only an apology “if it had caused him any distress”.
Hearings
He told the investigator, during a disciplinary proceeding, that the language he used was “just the way people speak” and that he’d heard the term “bints” in the TV soap opera Coronation Street.
Chatterton “evaded directly asked questions”
He claimed that the behaviour of his manager had caused him to be provoked and resulted in his inappropriate language.
The investigator explained that the term used was meant to be a derogatory label towards a female and that allowing male employees to speak in a discriminatory manner about their colleagues would “be in direct opposition to [First Travel]’s values”.
Appeal and dismissal
First Travel upheld Chatterton’s termination after he appealed his dismissal.
Zoe Thompson, a judge in the employment court, stated that Chatterton had “eluded direct questions” about whether he thought Chatterton’s language was derogatory ( Personnel today).
She noted that “he was clearly trying to minimize his guilt by using such words to describe his female manager.”
There was no evidence that such language was tolerated at the workplace of the respondent.
The judge found that Chatterton’s dismissal was justified in response to his behavior and denied his claim of unfair dismissal.
