Bus driver wins £11k payout over depot 'affair' rumours

A Wilts & Dorset bus driver who was forced to quit her job at the Lymington depot when managers failed to do anything about malicious rumours she was having an affair, has been awarded nearly £11,000 by an employment tribunal.

Jean Marie Spicknell, a 43-year-old single mother from Pennington, said she had to endure months of harassment and stress when the company failed to take her complaints seriously.

"It was an absolute nightmare for me but they just brushed it under the carpet," she told the 'A&T'. "It made me so ill with stress that I had no alternative but to leave a job I loved."

Problems started for Mrs Spicknell not long after she began working at the High Street depot in 2006. A colleague who was training her on the routes became over-friendly and when she made it clear his attention was unwelcome she heard he was spreading malicious rumours about her, including that she was having an affair with a married driver.

Mrs Spicknell said the gossip made it bad enough at work, but she also suffered harassment from the driver's wife with clothes and other items being dumped on her lawn on Christmas Eve.

"I used to go into work in the morning feeling sick and with my stomach churning because of the rumours but when I went to my manager he shrugged it off and didn't do anything to help me," said Mrs Spicknell.

At the employment tribunal hearing in Southampton the panel said the investigation carried out by Wilts & Dorset was wholly inadequate and as a result amounted to a fundamental breach of her contract. Upholding her claim for constructive dismissal they awarded her £10,939.

A claim for sex discrimination was rejected as the tribunal found that the flaws in the investigation did not relate to her gender.

Mrs Spicknell's solicitor, Steven Simpkins of Highcliffe based Simpkins and Co, told the 'A&T': "This case demonstrates that concerns and grievances raised by employees should be taken seriously by employers otherwise the working relationship can be destroyed.

"Unfortunately in this case my client's former employers failed to adequately consider Jean Marie's legitimate grievances and consequently she felt she had no alternative but to resign.

"The employment tribunal has vindicated my client and clearly deemed the termination of her employment to be unfair. I am pleased that my client has succeeded, particularly as her former employers fought her case all the way and would accept no wrongdoing on their part."

Mrs Spicknell, who has worked in a pub for the past 18 months, said: "I am pleased at the outcome – not for the money but to clear my name.

"Justice has been done at last but it was an absolutely terrible thing to have to go through and I should never have been forced to leave my job."