A
senior personnel manager at Manpower who lost his job after making an
inappropriate sexual comment about a colleague has had his claim of unfair
dismissal turned down by an employment tribunal.
John
Crook was dismissed in July 2000 after he sent an email to his manager Angela
Brunton supporting a pay rise for one of his staff and included a comment on
their sexual abilities.
It
happened only three months after Manpower had issued directions to all staff
concerning misuse of email.
Crook
claimed the comment was a joke but the tribunal supported Manpower’s decision
to treat the sending of offensive material by email as serious misconduct.
“The
tribunal absolutely vindicated Manpower’s position in taking strong action
against Mr Crook for sending an offensive email and as a company we deplore the
misuse of email and the Internet,” said Bernard Kingsley, employee relations
manager at Manpower.
