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Home Coming Scotland Employment Tribunal

VisitScotland slammed for dismissing bipolar PR manager

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

April 30, 2010 | 3 min read

Tourism organisation VisitScotland has been slated for the way in which it dealt with the dismissal of PR boss Richard Saville-Smith who suffered from mental health problems.

An employment tribunal rejected Mr Saville-Smith’s claim of disability discrimination as the claimant did not have “appropriate qualifying service to enable him to make a claim of unfair dismissal”, but added that had his length of service been long enough, it would be in little doubt that such a claim would succeed.

It noted that Mr Saville-Smith had been badly treated during his period of employment, but that only employees who have worked for an organisation for a year were eligible to claim unfair dismissal.

“The fact that the majority of the tribunal consider that the respondents have not breached the terms of the Disability Discrimination Act does not mean that the majority believed that the respondents had acted properly and in accordance with good HR processes.”

Mr Saville-Smith suffered a recurrence of his bipolar disorder, which he said was brought on by stress caused by the job. He needed psychiatric treatment after just a few weeks in the role.

VisitScotland’s handling of the case was criticised by the tribunal, saying it was “dissatisfied with the manner in which certain evidence of the respondent’s witnesses came out” with Paul Bush, chief operating officer for EventScotland, singled out.

Also panned was the human resources process at VisitScotland, with discrepancies evident between handwritten notes and typed versions of meetings between Saville-Smith and his employers. VisitScotland HR manager Fiona Reith was here found to “correct minutes so as to make clear what it was she meant to have said rather that what was actually said.”

Mr Saville-Smith, representing himself, vowed to appeal the tribunal’s judgment, saying: "The judgement is bizarre - it basically means that if three or four senior managers say 'we were going to sack him before he got ill' then it is OK.”

"I had a mental illness for 13 years but worked perfectly well - employers just need to get over it."

A spokesperson for Visit Scotland said: “As we anticipated all along, VisitScotland has been vindicated by the employment tribunal’s decision and we have been found not to have discriminated against Mr Saville-Smith. We are pleased that the employment tribunal has found in our favour as we have always known that Mr Saville-Smith did not have his employment terminated for any reason related to his disability.”

Home Coming Scotland Employment Tribunal

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