Barmaid wins compensation after being sacked for not turning off tap
22-04-2009
A barmaid has been awarded compensation from her former employer because she was sacked for failing to turn off a tap at the end of her shift.
Judy MacDonald was fired by the Conon Bridge Hotel in November 2008 because she did not check the toilets and left the hot tap running when locking up one night.
Consequently, the hotel was short of hot water the next morning and manager John Proudfoot said she failed to carry out an important duty.
However, Ms MacDonald claimed the real reason for her losing her job was that Mr Proudfoot had heard she was "making a nuisance" of herself in a local pub one night.
Tribunal chairperson Fiona Carmichael stated that leaving the tap running "did not justify summary dismissal, particularly in the absence of evidence of any previous disciplinary record".
It was reported last month that Kimberley Swann, a 16-year-old administrator from Clacton, Essex, was fired after branding her jobs as boring on her Facebook profile.
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