Going to the pub while off work sick isn’t a sackable offence, a judge has ruled

Going to the pub while off sick from work isn’t a sackable offence, a judge has ruled this week.

Sixty-six year old Colin Kane from Newcastle was dismissed from his role as a driver at Debmat Surfacing on March 9th, 2020 when he was spotted in the pub by a colleague on the same day he’d called in sick.

The member of staff claims to have seen Colin at a local social club drinking alcohol and smoking a cigarette. 

Bosses rang Colin – who is a heavy smoker and subsequently suffers from a serious lung condition – only for them to be told ‘he had been in bed all day with his chest.’

@emergeartistry / Unsplash

Contracts manager Shaun Johnson then called Colin into a meeting, during which he said: “Surely if you had been unfit for work and on antibiotics, you shouldn’t be in the pub.”

But Colin argued that he’d ‘not been in the pub long,’ and therefore saw very little wrong with his behaviour.

Nonetheless, disciplinary action was subsequently taken against him and, after nine years at the company, he was fired in July for dishonesty and breaching the company’s rules.

But Colin wasn’t going to go down without a fight; the scorned former employee took his case to court where, over a year on, a judge has ruled in his favour.

Andrea Pitt / Linkedin

Judge Andrea Pitt has ruled that the company acted unfairly when they sacked Colin, pointing out that nowhere in the company’s rules does it ban workers from socialising while on the sick.

Pitt said: “There is nothing in the disciplinary procedure prohibiting an employee from acting in this way.

“[Debmat Surfacing] made a gross assumption, without evidence, that the claimant should not be at the social club because of the nature of his condition.”

She also said that the company had claimed they’d phoned Colin on the Tuesday rather than the Monday, a claim which was ‘incorrect’ and proved a ‘serious error’ in their investigation.

A further hearing will be scheduled in the coming days to determine the amount of compensation Colin will receive.