A hydrant technician from the London Fire Brigade (LFB) has been found to have been unfairly dismissed for gross misconduct in April 2023.
On October 10, 2022, in Tesco in Pinner Green, Ryan Shearwood was accused of physically assaulting a woman by “shoving [her] to the ground” after she allegedly jumped the self-checkout queue. The woman reported the incident to the LFB.
Mr Shearwood denied the accusation, stating that he had asked the woman why she was pushing in before she used “her body weight to lean into [him] and physically move [him]”. He claimed his actions were to “defend” himself.
Following an LFB investigation which concluded that Mr Shearwood had assaulted the woman, he was fired for gross misconduct.
Mr Shearwood argued that the internal investigation was one-sided, leaving him unable to properly challenge the allegations against him.
Now, a tribunal has ruled the dismissal was unfair after finding that the investigation was flawed and evidence was not strong enough to support the conclusion that Mr Shearwood had assaulted the defendant.
The Employment Tribunal found that there were several issues with the original investigation, including the destruction of CCTV footage.
As a result, Mr Shearwood has been awarded compensation for his unfair dismissal and a remedy hearing will take place on October 23 to 24.
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