Taxi Driver Online

A female taxi driver has been awarded nearly £9,000 in an employment tribunal which found she was unfairly paid less than her male colleagues.

Kristine Macnab-Grieve, of Gressenhall, worked for Norfolk Taxi Network in Dereham for four years on a part-time basis. At the same time her husband worked for the same company as a full-time taxi driver, but she was consistently paid nearly £1 an hour less than him.

She took her employers to tribunal after she was made redundant in August 2008 claiming her dismissal was unfair and earlier this month a judge agreed with her claim and awarded her a total of £8,684.23 made up from arrears of remuneration under the Equal Pay Act 1970, a compensatory award for unfair dismissal, a redundancy payment and compensation for failure to provide written particulars of terms and conditions of employment.

Mrs Macnab-Grieve said she was satisfied with the outcome and urged other people who felt they were being unfairly treated in the workplace to take action.

“I have not asked for anything I am not entitled to,” she said. “People have got to stand up to their employers. You can't be bullied into not asking for what is right. It has been proven that they have broken the law.”

Mrs Macnab-Grieve said the only point she was unhappy with in the judgment was that it was not proved she was made redundant as a result of her complaints about her pay.

She maintains that as soon as she asked for her pay to be readressed in December 2007 her employer told her he could not guarantee her another contract after her current job ended in August 2008.

She agrees that she was offered a fixed term contract until July 2009 but she was unable to accept as she would not be allowed to keep the taxi at her home overnight and she did not want a fixed term.

The judgment stated that “on the face of it the respondent (Norfolk Taxi Network) had a good reason for making the claimant redundant, namely the loss of the contract on which she was working. Although that fact did not absolve the respondent from the need to go through a proper redundancy process and consult with the claimant about other options that might be available”.

However the judgment did find that there was a breach of the Equal Pay Act as she was employed on like work with a male comparator and she was entitled to claim arrears of pay.

It also found she was entitled to redundancy payment and that she was unfairly dismissed as statutory procedures were not followed so compensation was due.

The Times tried to contact Norfolk Taxi Network at its Market Place address but was told the company no longer existed.

Heard this lady give her side of the story on Radio Five the other day.

Basically the boss was a ***t and deserves to pay back the lady every bloody penny.

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IDFIMH