An Elvis impersonator has been sacked after
performing with his band while off sick from work.
Gasman Billy McGregor was dumped after 27 years
service, but denies a bad back should have kept him from the stage.
"I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong
at all," he told the Mirror newspaper.
"It’s not like I had a sore throat and
couldn’t sing. It was my back and that meant I couldn’t do my job as a service
engineer. I was on the front of the company magazine in full Elvis outfit. I
was hardly trying to hide, was I?
"I was going to cancel the performance,
but the other lads said we could take it easy and I could stop and start when I
wanted.
"I feel caught in a trap."
Many workmates, including one of his managers,
at gas company Transco bought tickets to the show.
Yesterday a Newcastle
tribunal gave him permission to lodge a claim for constructive dismissal.
