Unfair dismissal costs Reeves £10,000

THOUGH Reeves Boat Builders Ltd ceased business in July, a judge has awarded one of its workers over £10,000 including redundancy money.

Keith Bicknell told Birmingham Employment Tribunal, that he had worked for the company for 14 years, and was seeking redundancy pay and notice and holiday money after being sacked.

Sacked

He told the tribunal that he received a letter from the company telling him that he was sacked, and not even handed his tools, stating:

"I worked for the family of Graham Reeve and his wife Julie and Graham's brother, David, for 14 years. I even taught Graham's sons how to build boats."

Laid off twice

He had been laid off twice in the past as orders ran out, with at one time eight employees being made redundant. No one from the company attended the hearing, so no defence was heard.

The tribunal awarded Keith Bicknell  a total of £10,176, that included £8,400 redundancy money, but under the circumstances the Tribunal judge Mary Cocks pointed out, he would  not get his redundancy money from the company, but would have to apply to the government's redundancy office.