A former Metroline West driver lost his appeal for unfair dismissal at a at Watford Employment Tribunal.
Eric Kanydro had been employed by the firm from May 2011 to August 2016 when he was dismissed for gross misconduct.
He made a legal claim for the dismissal against his former employers and Tribunal Judge Kurt Smail ruled in the defendant’s favour.
Metroline West told the Tribunal that there had been a series of unfortunate events leading up to the disciplinary hearing and Mr Kanydro’s dismissal.
He had allegedly refused to carry out his duty in June 2016, later failed to comply with an instruction, and allegedly endangered his passengers by moving the bus while talking to passengers.
Mr Kanydro was further accused of driving the bus towards a company official on three occasions, failing to drive the vehicle to the required standard, and putting the company in disrepute.
Officials provided CCTV evidence and also accused Mr Kanydro of adapting a “bad and demeaning attitude” towards them.
One incident was alleged to have been at Euston Station where Mr Kanydro denied he refused to carry out his duty by driving out his bus at a certain time. He said he had been entitled to have three minutes standing time. Mr Kanydro said he had got out of his bus and could not drive under the stress. He was taken into the garage to see the counter supervisor.
During another incident, Mr Kanydro was accused of driving off after being told to wait for a passenger to get on the bus. He was given written warnings for both incidents and sacked for allegedly driving his bus towards a company official on three occasions.
Mr Kanydro denied all the accusations and insisted he had not done anything wrong. He accused the management of bullying and harassment.
Judge Smail said he was satisfied the firm had conducted a fair and reasonable investigation into the matter and said that the dismissal had not been unfair.
