A glass manufacturing giant paid private detectives to spy on a severely depressed dad while he was on sick leave despite 36 years of loyal service.
Surveillance firm Mike India 5 Agents took secret video recordings of dad-of-three Alan Jones, 55, and trawled through his financial records after being commissioned by his managers at St Helens based Pilkington Glass.
Team leader Mr Jones had spent significant time on sick leave due to a debilitating and incurable muscle wasting condition known as radiation induced neuropathy - a side-effect of radiotherapy treatment he received for cancer years earlier.
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The pain and restrictions on his lifestyle caused by his condition had a devastating effect, and he was also diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety, which contributed to time off work.
Based on footage of Mr Jones visiting a friend at his farm - an activity specifically encouraged by mental health services to improve his mood - Pilkington wrongly concluded he had been working while off sick and sacked him.
It was a "heartbreaking" end to a career that started in 1983 and saw Mr Jones work his way up from an apprentice, while also being serving as a trade union representative and a shop steward.
Determined to clear his name, Mr Jones, from St Helens, took his former bosses to an Employment Tribunal and won, with a judge ruling he had been the victim of unfair dismissal, disability discrimination and breach of contract.
He told the ECHO: "I am still in disbelief that after all these years, rather than speak to me, my employer went to these lengths to try and catch me out.
"I am a long-standing member and steward of a trade union, so I know the rules backwards and I would never break the sickness policy."
He added: "To serve a company for 36 years and get dismissed for spending time with friends to help my mental health is nothing short of disrespectful.
“What they thought was manual labour was, in fact, just me passing a hose pipe to my friend, who was watering flowers for my daughter’s wedding."
Mr Jones had not been under any suspicion until March, 2019, when a colleague had spotted Mr Jones wearing "work boots" in a cycle shop.
The unnamed employee told his bosses, leading management to suspect that dad-of-three Mr Jones was taking on other employment while off sick.
The gumshoes hired by Pilkington followed him to the farm and made recordings of him there, which led to Pilkington concluding he had undertaken employment.
A disciplinary process followed, in which Pilkington hearing manager Sam Cooke accepted Mr Jones had not been carrying out paid work, but the firm concluded he had undertaken "physical activity" while off sick and sacked him anyway.
However, as Employment Judge Johnson commented in a written ruling, "what was noticeable about [the videos'] content was how unremarkable they were".
The tribunal found that rather than "manual labour", the footage showed Mr Jones picking up a normal sized bag of potatoes and passing his friend, the farmer, a hose-pipe while he was watering flowers.
Judge Johnson wrote: "It appears that little consideration was given concerning the proportionality of the investigation and the extent to which Mr Jones’ privacy should be interfered with.
"As it turned out, the surveillance company appeared to go way beyond what Pilkington’s expected, investigating Mr Jones’ property ownership and credit referencing...
"After all, this sort of activity does involve interference with human rights and an individual’s reasonable expectation of privacy.
"An employer should naturally carry out these activities in a limited, necessary and proportionate way."
The tribunal also concluded that Pilkington's management of the disciplinary process was "confusing" and criticised the firm for not telling him they had recordings of him until the process was some way along.
The firm also refused to share the full videos with Mr Jones or his union representatives, who were only allowed to examine still images taken from the footage.
Judge Johnson also wrote there was "clear evidence" that Pilkington HR manager Andrea Manley had "rushed" Mr Cooke to make a decision on whether to dismiss Mr Jones.
Ms Manley and Mr Cooke had also failed to consider whether the "very little" physical activity Mr Jones had been recording carrying out actually breached their sickness policy, and did not ask the opinion of a "designated medical advisor".
A further hearing will take place to determine how much compensation Mr Jones should receive.
Craig Peel, an employment expert from Thompsons Solicitors who acted for Mr Jones, said: “Jumping to conclusions and assuming your loyal employee of over three decades is taking advantage when he is genuinely unwell, is outrageous.
“Our client had been suffering with mental health issues which were well-known to his employer and when spied on was following the advice he was given to treat that, yet Pilkington chose not to have an open conversation and - having got totally the wrong end of the stick - sacked him.
“We are glad that we have been able to play our part in ensuring that he will receive the compensation he deserves."
Ritchie James, North West regional secretary at Unite the Union, added: "Monitoring and surveillance not only undermines workers’ rights to privacy, it can also create high levels of stress and anxiety leading to ill health and poor performance".
A spokesman for Pilkington said the firm could not comment on the case "while the process is ongoing".
What do you think about the way Alan was treated? Let us know in the comments below.
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