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A bus driver who was fired after going on the wrong side of the road to skip a line of traffic – and was later "reluctant to accept the potential danger" – has lost his claim that he was unfairly sacked as a result of a "vendetta".
Noel Harrison was fired by CT Plus Ltd last July after admitting the manoeuvre on Route du Fort, allowing the bus to turn into Grenville Street, which was reported by a member of the public and also captured on CCTV.
He justified it by saying that the road was clear and he was running late.
On 13 July, the day following the complaint, Mr Harrison was suspended after an investigation at which it was said that his language was "dismissive and blunt".
Subsequently, appearing at a disciplinary hearing before the company's operations manager Kevin Sharp, Mr Harrison was summarily dismissed although it was later agreed, following an unsuccessful appeal against dismissal, that the company would not withhold his notice pay.
Claiming unfair dismissal at the Employment Tribunal, Mr Harrison argued that his dismissal was motivated by a vendetta which the company's regional director Kevin Hart pursued against him, something which had been rejected at an appeal conducted by the company, and was again dismissed by the tribunal.
Deputy Chair Advocate Cyril Whelan said: "I have rejected out of hand any notion of the dismissal in this case having resulted from a personal vendetta by Mr Hart, using others as his agents... Mr Hart was asked whether he had acted in the way described by Mr Harrison."
Pictured: The case was heard by the Employment Tribunal's Deputy Chair, Advocate Cyril Whelan.
He continued: "Mr Hart appeared to me to be an honest and straightforward witness. I had no difficulty in accepting his denial. Likewise, both Mr Sharp and Mr Greaves [who conducted the internal appeal] appeared to me to be honest and of strong character. It was objectively not possible to visualise them being drawn into an unworthy conspiracy to dismiss Mr Harrison, as alleged by him."
Mr Harrison also claimed that mistakes by others, including one where a driver had been prosecuted for driving which resulted in a collision at the bus station in which a bus had been damaged and injury caused to passengers, had been treated more leniently.
However, Advocate Whelan found "an important point of distinction" between those cases and Mr Harrison's.
"So far as research could establish, and this was certainly true of the case just particularised, the other drivers had accepted blame, shown genuine remorse and a resolve to learn from their respective errors.
"By way of contrast, Mr Harrison had been dismissive and reluctant to accept the potential danger of electing to drive as he had done on the occasion charged against him. The company could not, therefore, find itself reassured that he understood that he must never again engage in driving of the sort now under consideration.
"This was particularly so given that Mr Harrison did not appear to be learning from the written warnings to which he had previously been subject," Advocate Whelan said.
Giving judgment, the deputy chairman said that the company followed a reasonable procedure and that the decision to dismiss the claimant for misconduct was within the band of reasonable responses.
"The claim of unfair dismissal therefore fails," he concluded.
Bus driver admits "potentially dangerous" overtaking
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