Employee settlement is a farce: R. G. Falla boss

Wednesday 12th December 2012, 10:00AM GMT.

Employee settlement is a farce: R. G. Falla boss

FURTHER details have emerged about a wrongly signed witness statement that caused the immediate adjournment of an R. G. Falla unfair dismissal hearing.

Director Paul Mason confirmed yesterday that the piece of evidence presented to the tribunal panel was a statement he wrote as part of the company’s dismissal of ex-foreman John Haining.

Mr Haining had sworn in the face of managing director Peter Gregory at the company Christmas ball after becoming drunk and rowdy.

But Mr Mason, pictured, said he was surprised that the signature at the bottom of the document was not his.

‘I had previously signed the statement but I don’t know where that copy came from,’ he said.

He said he was unable to comment on the settlement. ‘I think it’s a farce – I can’t believe any employee can be rewarded for abusing the MD,’ he said.


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  1. 1
    Cousin Vinny

    Builders using bad language?! Well I never!

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    • Robert

      And getting drunk at the works Christmas do? Who’d have thought?

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    • PLP

      Having worked in a few finance offices over the years I’ve heard far more potty language there than on any building site!

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      • vic gamble

        …potty language, Paul, and in an office…surely you must be confused;
        you are thinking of the time you worked in a nursery, when children and toms,totally confused, were all shouting “Are we vegetables, or are we not, you little snot”

        Please note the rhyme…come on, we all swear within the boundaries of what we think is acceptable…I have even been known to blaspheme…but that is another stifling story.

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  2. 2
    Johno

    Couldn’t agree more a complete farce. A good, well run local company being taken to the cleaners by a drunk guy.
    Hopefully nobody will employ the idiot.

    Unfortunately the employment laws always seem to come down on the side of the employee.

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    • Robert

      Actually, I didn’t read that anyone had come down on the side of the sacked employee. What I read was the defence case crumbled when it emerged a statement that had purportedly been signed by a company director had been signed by someone else. I presume these are legal documents.

      Not great work by this ‘well-run local company’. On the contrary, it would appear any farce was of their own making.

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    • Lou

      Good well run company? Are you on the board or Paul Mason himself? The employment law has fallen on the correct side this time

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  3. 3
    slinky

    It was a settlement not a reward.

    Be interesting to see whether there is an investigation in to what RG Falla has done is fraudulant.

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  4. 4
    Cousin Vinny.... and!

    Employee getting drunk at the firm’s Christmas party?! Well I never!

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  5. 5
    King Maker

    Simply high spirits in the mess – why has the MD not been a man and taken it in its context – what a bunch of mary’s – pathetic.

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  6. 6
    Nige

    Couldn’t agree more Slinkey. If the central plank (no pun intended)of their intension to dismiss this employee, was the written statement of the director, who hadn’t signed the document. Then surely it’s a blatant case of misrepresentation.
    So who signed it ???

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  7. 7
    Robert Louis

    I think a Director describing an employment tribunal as “a farce” in the media is at best misguided and and worst…..

    Fair play to the newly appointed joint MD of RGF for keeping his head well below the parapet on this one.

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  8. 8
    Johno

    Lou
    I am neither on the board or indeed Paul Mason, but I am an employer who If I had treated my staff to an all expenses night out, would have expected a bit of respect!
    If I had been in this position I would have done exactly the same thing.
    It’s quite sad reading some of the comments here.

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    • LJ

      If RG Falla really thought they had a strong case they would have pushed ahead. I think they would rather lose by a mistake of their own than be shown up in the tribunal for wrongly dismissing someone. What happened was out of work hours and they know this which is why they have brought up the signature themselves.

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  9. 9
    Mr Bee

    I quote “Mr John Haining had sworn in the face of managing director Peter Gregory at the company Christmas ball after becoming drunk and rowdy”. Well done John, sometimes Dutch courage can go a long way towards revealing the thoughts of many, and wholly deserved by one..

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  10. 10
    danno

    absolutely spot on comment. Anyone who disagrees clearly hasn’t met the man.

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