Catering Manager sacked for telling Passengers the truth

[Flamingo]

Are we really arguing over how a colleague should be addressed? Jesus!

You're new here, aren't you?

 

[RJ]

It doesn't sound like he's going back to work to me, it sounds like he's been paid off with a confidential compromise agreement.

It wouldn't be the first time Virgin have paid off an employee who've proven themselves to be a liability.

I suspect we shall never know the whole truth, or all the factors behind the disciplinary. My guess is that the union has fought the case on the basis that the company did not follow the correct procedure to the letter in carrying out the disciplinary.

 

[DownSouth]

I don't think that would be an appropriate way to refer to a colleague.

Unless they are of Latin American extraction and it's their given name.

 

[Robertj21a]

If I'd been treated like dirt, harassed and bullied then, yes, I would quite like my company's customers to know every little detail.

But equally if the company turned round and offered me large sums of hush money, well who knows I might be tempted.

Personally I think that if reinstatement isn't an option the company should be made to pay the employee's entire projected salary until normal retirement date, plus the tax and national insurance contributions potentially lost to the government, plus a substantial fee in damages for blackening the employee's previous good name. A lost ET case should cost them up to hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Why ? - if the settlement is confidential then you have no idea whatsoever of where any/part of the 'blame' should lie.

 

[IanXC]

On this question of what we should, or shouldnt expect to know as passengers, I very much read the original comment as referring to knowing why there was disruption to the catering service. As someone who investigates these kind of matters in another industry I would absolutely agree - an employer has no reason/obligation/business confirming whether action has/has not been taken.

 

[R4_GRN]

It wouldn't be the first time Virgin have paid off an employee who've proven themselves to be a liability.

How is this employee a liability? He told the truth to passengers are you saying he should have lied to passengers to show his supervisors in a better light?

Looks like he would lose whichever reason he gave, with customers who seem to excel in complaining employees have to tread a carefull line otherwise managers could use this as excuse to terminate their employment

Not normally a big fan of unions but in this case they seem to have earned their fees

 

[RJ]

It wouldn't be the first time Virgin have paid off an employee who've proven themselves to be a liability.

How is this employee a liability? He told the truth to passengers are you saying he should have lied to passengers to show his supervisors in a better light?

Looks like he would lose whichever reason he gave, with customers who seem to excel in complaining employees have to tread a carefull line otherwise managers could use this as excuse to terminate their employment

Not normally a big fan of unions but in this case they seem to have earned their fees

We don't know the full story of why this action was taken against the employee, if there was a history involving disciplinaries etc which would have led to the business decision of giving him the sack. To be dismissed off the bat solely for saying that a service was short staffed and the boiler being broken is a bit far fetched. Was anything unnecessary said at the time about the company's ability to run the service? We shall never know.

As I said, I would not be surprised if the union was acting on the basis of protocol not being correctly followed in the management of the disciplinary. Which is a cause worth fighting.