Lewd antics of JP who dropped his trousers... and won £15k payout

‘He said he would not do it again’

A FACTORY worker has won £15,000 after being unfairly dismissed for dropping his trousers and simulating sex with a table in front of a younger woman colleague.

Robert Cuthbertson, 63, carried out his lewd antics as a joke but was sacked after bosses said ‘vulnerable’ young staff were working in the area.

The ‘moment of madness’ happened after a sex toy was delivered to a colleague at the engineering factory where Mr Cuthbertson, also a magistrate, worked training apprentices.

After laughing about the delivery, Mr Cuthbertson went to an office with a 26-year- old woman employee, dropped his trousers and jerked his body back and forth on the table.

The woman’s boss reported him for gross misconduct. But another manager told Mr Cuthbertson that if he had been his boss, he would simply have told him ‘not to be a daft b****r’.

Mr Cuthbertson had worked for the Siemens firm for 40 years when the incident happened at the Newcastle factory last October. The delivery is said to have caused a ‘good deal of discussion and humour in the workplace’ and as the team joked, he had pulled his trousers down to raucous laugh- ter. But after everyone had dispersed he went into a side room, dropped his trousers to his ankles and called to his colleague, known only as Emily. She said he ‘humped the table’ and he later admitted ‘simulating a sexual act’. The com- pany carried out an investigation before bringing Mr Cuthbertson, of Chester-le-Street, County Durham, before a disciplinary hearing at which he was sacked. His appeal was rejected by the company. But at an employment tribunal in North Shields, Judge Tudor Garnon ruled that he had been unfairly dismissed.

‘The claimant has been a justice of the peace for 17 years and is a “safeguarder” at work, so is very conscious of the risk to young apprentices of improper behaviour in the workplace,’ he said.

‘When the victim Emily’s line manager was asked about the incident he said it represented gross misconduct on a par with sustained racial abuse or physical violence.

‘At the investigation, the disciplinary hearing and the appeal, the claimant apologised and said he would not do it again. But he was dismissed, despite one wit- ness saying it was perhaps a moment of madness.’

At the disciplinary hearing Mr Cuthbertson was accused being a ‘pervert’ or someone who would knowingly expose apprentices to ‘inappropriate behaviour likely to corrupt their morals’, but these accusations were dropped at appeal. He described his own behaviour as silly and childish but never dreamed it would result in him being sacked.

The employment tribunal concluded that Mr Cuthbertson often ‘engaged in ribald conversation’ at the factory, where there was ‘a good deal of strong language with sexual connotations’ along with photographs of naked women isplayed in some work bays. Judge Garnon added: ‘I find the decision to dismiss is one which no reasonable employer could have taken and was well outside the band of reasonable responses.

‘It is rare for me to decide a case on that basis, but this is one of those rare cases. The claims of unfair and wrongful dismissal are well founded.’

He awarded Mr Cuthbertson compensation of £14,870.

Siemens said: ‘We do not regret our decision to dismiss Mr Cuthbertson. His behaviour was totally unacceptable and against our core values to protect our employees from disrespectful behaviour.’