Plumber, 69, nicknamed Half-Dead Dave by bosses wins a £25,000 payout
A VETERAN plumber nicknamed ‘Half-Dead Dave’ because of his age has won £25,000 in compensation.
David Robson, who lost his job aged 69, was regularly called the name by colleagues and by his bosses, an employment tribunal was told.
They claimed it was simply ‘banter’ but the tribunal heard it left Mr Robson feeling ‘saddened and embarrassed’.
The company subsequently selected him for redundancy after a point-scoring system rated him as lower than other staff. But the tribunal said the system was unfair and there was ‘no justification’ for the low scores awarded to Mr Robson, who is now 71.
It also said his ‘Half-Dead’ nickname proved that his status as oldest employee had influenced the decision to sack him.
The tribunal ruled Mr Robson had been discriminated against due to his age and unfairly sacked, and awarded him £25,000 in compensation – £7,000 of which was awarded purely for the ‘name-calling’. Mr Robson qualified as a plumber 55 years ago, and had worked for Clarke’s Mechanical Ltd as a ‘plumber/pipefitter’ for eight years. He was the ‘oldest skilled worker’ out of ‘some 17 gas engineers/plumbers’ at the firm in Cowes on the Isle of Wight.
In January 2020 he was told he was to be axed due to a ‘downturn in workload’ and was awarded £6,300 in redundancy pay.
Mr Robson appealed, asking his company to explain how he was chosen. The scoring system supposedly used to select redundancy candidates was later sent to Mr Robson, which he complained had been ‘fabricated’. The score was low given his experience.
The tribunal in Bristol heard Mr Robson was nicknamed ‘Half-Dead Dave’ on site, and that the name was also used by supervisors and bosses.
During one incident in 2015, his supervisor Lee Pitman admitted using the name when telling another worker, Tom Fox, to take equipment to Mr Robson. The tribunal heard Mr Fox then handed Mr Robson the fittings saying, ‘Here you are, Half-Dead.’
Mr Robson asked who had called him that and was told it was Mr Pitman, who insisted
‘He thought it rather amusing’
there was ‘no malice’ and told the tribunal ‘it was just banter’.
But Mr Robson said: ‘It was saddening. The most saddening thing was that the term originated from a member of the management. I was regularly referred to as Half-Dead Dave. Lee Pitman thought it was rather amusing.
‘I didn’t ask colleagues [to stop]. I just thought “Only a few years left at work, let’s just put up with it”.’
Employment judge Martha Felicity Street ruled he had been discriminated against because of his age ‘plain and simple’. She said: ‘[The name] caused detriment. Mr Robson put up with it, but he did not like it, he was uncomfortable, saddened and embarrassed.’