Taxi driver fails in compensation bid

A TAXI driver who claimed his boss said “you’ll get what you’re bloody entitled to” as he laid him off has failed in a court bid for compensation.

Douglas Corbitt was employed as a taxi driver with Forfar Taxi Company from March 2013 until July last year.

Following a two-week absence due to a knee injury, Mr Corbitt was told the company was “struggling” and would be unable to afford to continue his employment.

The court heard the company had fallen into financial difficulty due to purchasing a wheelchair-accessible vehicle but failing to secure any appropriate contracts for its use.

After a series of “heated” meetings with Mitchell Murray — the company owner — and Mr Corbitt’s wife, he was relieved of his job.

Mr Corbitt told the court that during one meeting, Mr Murray had told him “you’ll get what you are bloody entitled to” and, when his wife had inquired about his legal entitlement, he replied “what makes you think I can pay his four weeks’ notice when I can’t afford to pay his wages?”.

Mr Murray disputed that version of events.

The court also heard the trio had drawn up a contract at the meeting which stipulated that Mr Corbitt was “accepting £1,440 redundancy from Mitchell Murray”.

However, the Corbitts later decided he was entitled to more than he received.

The action led Mr Corbitt to raise a civil action against Mr Murray — claiming that his dismissal was unfair, he had breached his contract in respect of notice pay and also claims regarding holiday pay he believed he was entitled to.

However, at an employment tribunal held in Dundee, his claim was dismissed.

Judge Alexander Meiklejohn ruled that Mr Corbitt was unable to pursue unfair dismissal — due to him technically not being dismissed — and therefore his other claims were also thrown out at the tribunal.

He said: “This was an unfortunate case. It was apparent that there had been a good relationship between the claimant and the respondent prior to July 21 2017.

“It was perhaps not surprising that this turned sour when the respondent told the claimant that his job was at risk.”

Judge Meiklejohn also found that Mr Murray was not entitled to recover the £1,440 he paid to Mr Corbitt.

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Douglas Corbitt