Father wins pounds 6,000 over dismissal

A FATHER who was sacked for taking paternity leave when his second daughter was born, won an agreed pounds 6,000 in compensation yesterday.

An industrial tribunal was told that James McLintock, 34, was sacked for taking unauthorised leave when he returned to his pounds 16,000-a-year job as a factory manager after spending a week taking care of his wife, new baby and daughter Emma, four.

Mr McLintock claimed that he was unfairly dismissed.

After hearing evidence from the managers of Shadbolt and Sons veneer factory in London, where Mr McLintock, of Waltham Abbey, Essex, worked the tribunal chairwoman, Mrs Rhea Martin ordered the company to settle the claim.

Michael Hill, of Chingford, north-east London, the company manager, told the Woburn Place, central London hearing: 'There were two main reasons for dismissing Mr McLintock. One was unauthorised absence from work. The other was incompetence in the management of his department.'

Mr Hill said: 'The company has a set procedure for booking holidays. This procedure was not followed.'

Mrs Martin told the hearing: 'If Mr McLintock had simply absented himself from work it would have been a serious disciplinary offence but he had a very good reason, his wife had just had a baby and you knew he was planning to take a week off when it was born.'