'Missing beer' drayman loses sack appeal

A former drayman has lost a compensation claim for unfair dismissal after being accused of misconduct over a "missing" barrel of beer.

But Tradeteam Ltd, trading as DHL, of Birmingham, was urged by Birmingham Employment Tribunal chairman Mr Ron Ashton to improve the security of the barrels after former drayman Paul Hewitt, admitted they were loosely tied down on lorries to help speed up delivery.

Mr Daniel Dyal representing the firm, said one barrel of beer was missing from the load delivered by Mr Hewitt, of Ashmore Park, Wednesbury to Telford Golf Club.

The missing barrel was eventually delivered to The Dolphin pub at Telford – one more barrel than had been ordered.

Following an investigation Mr Hewitt was dismissed for gross misconduct.

He denied he had done anything wrong and said he had made a delivery error which did not justify the sack. He said he made about 20 deliveries a day and that barrels were fairly loosely loaded on lorries to speed up deliveries so he could get home early. "Everyone does it – we try to finish by 3pm," he said.

Mr Hewitt, who had had been a drayman for 11 years, accused the firm of sacking him to avoid the cost of making him redundant.

"Twelve employees had been made redundant," he said.

Mr Dyal said no discussion had been made about redundancies when Mr Hewitt was dismissed.

After a two-day hearing Mr Ashton said the firm's discussion fell within the bounds of reasonable responses and rejected Mr Hewitt's compensation claim for unfair dismissal. But he criticised the way the barrels were delivered to help speed up delivery.

"They appeared to be loosely loaded on lorries which is not a good practice and the employers should look at this from the health and safety aspect," he said.