Man wrongly sacked after Eric and Ernie striptease

A BUS company manager who was wrongly sacked for gross misconduct after he filmed a colleague’s

striptease has been awarded compensation by a tribunal.

Geoff Lovejoy, an operations manager at CE Jeatt & Sons Ltd, a bus and coach service in Ascot and Windsor, has now been awarded more than £52,000 for the unfair and wrongful dismissal at a hearing in Reading.

In December 2020, he recorded his long-term friend and company cleaner Sean McAleer dancing around their office to by the David Rose Band, in a scene reminiscent of the comedy duo’s performance.

Mr McAleer was videoed playing with the zip of his cardigan before removing it, tossing it to one side and ending up “sprawled out” on a desk. But despite working in an office full of “horseplay” and “camaraderie”, Mr Lovejoy was accused by fellow workers of “grooming” and “goading” his colleague to do it. was popularised in a

sketch from 1976 which featured the comedians performing a dance using kitchen utensils and food items in time with the music.

After Mr Lovejoy was fired for gross misconduct, he sued bosses for unfair and wrongful dismissal, insisting that he had not forced Mr McAleer. In what was described as a “jovial pre-Christmas act”, Mr Lovejoy used his phone to record a 42-second dance performed by the music, which was described to the tribunal as “his song”. In August 2021, he was sacked for gross misconduct.

But at the tribunal, the bus operator admitted that his use of the company phone was “nothing out of the ordinary”.