Car dealers must pay salesman with leukaemia £63k

An Angus car dealership has been ordered to pay more than £60,000 in compensation to an employee suffering from leukaemia who was unfairly treated.

An employment tribunal found Mackie Motors salesman Greg Black, 51, was forced into resigning by the company and its managing director Kevin Mackie in August 2019.

Mr Black, who earned around £60,000 per year as a sales manager at the Arbroath branch, has a latent form of the cancer chronic lymphatic leukaemia and his wife was also diagnosed with breast cancer at the time.

The Carnoustie resident fell into a depression and in his resignation letter claimed he was “deliberately isolated, bullied and harassed” by the firm, based in Brechin.

The tribunal ruled Mr Black was unfairly dismissed because the firm had acted “entirely unreasonably” by cancelling his fuel card but did not find this was due to his disabilities.

He was awarded £63,150 — the maximum that could be paid out in his case.

The company has said it is “hugely disappointed” in the decision.

Mr Black did not wish to speak about the case but his solicitor John Macmillan, a partner at the firm Macroberts LLP, said his client went through a tough time. He said:

“There’s no doubt he was operating in a very difficult context. He has this latent leukaemia condition and his wife had been unwell while he was also suffering from depression on account of all of that.

“The decision to resign and give up his job had been a fairly significant decision for him.”

Judge Melanie Sangster said in her decision the fuel card termination was a “unilateral change” to the claimant’s contractual terms “without consultation”.

She added that other failures by Mackie Motors were a breach of the implied term that the employer will not, without reasonable and proper cause, act in such a way as is “calculated or likely to destroy or seriously damage the mutual trust and confidence between the parties”.

Mr Macmillan added: “We won because of the course of treatment which the company had subjected Mr Black to. The critical point was he had, like many in the motor trade at his level, a fuel card. The company arbitrarily cancelled that card without any notice to him.”

Kevin Mackie, managing director at the firm, said he was “hugely disappointed and still trying to come to terms with the decision”.

He added: “Our awardwinning family business has always prided itself on staff loyalty and customer satisfaction.”

FORCED RESIGNATION: Greg Black was unfairly treated by Mackie Motors, an employment tribunal ruled.