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Parking clerk wins tribunal
'I was forced to clear name’
A FORMER clerk who won a case for unfair dismissal from his job issuing parking permits in Hampstead has condemned the council’s parking department and said he was forced to go to a tribunal to clear his name.
An employment tribunal in Kingsway, Holborn, said last Thursday that Ashley Alexander, 21, (pictured) had been unfairly dismissed after months of wrangling with managers at the Heath Street office of Parking Solutions, where he worked as a cashier.
Mr Alexander said: “The main reason I went to tribunal was so that no-one else would have to. Hopefully managers will be called to account.”
The two-week tribunal, in which Mr Alexander was represented by his mother Lorraine against a Camden Council legal team, found that his position at Parking Solutions “was becoming close to intolerable on the grounds of the agenda of suspicions and hostility his managers were harbouring in relation to him”.
Managers had compiled a report against Mr Alexander for a disciplinary action in which they listed allegations of racism and sexism, the tribunal heard.
But Mr Alexander was never shown the report, and never had the opportunity to contest suggestions that he was not to be trusted.
He eventually resigned in April 2006, just months after he had been taken on as permanent staff having worked at the office as a temp.
At the tribunal, Mr Alexander claimed that his complaints at the process of selection to become permanent – known as assimilation – had triggered resentment among managers.
The tribunal’s three strong board raised concerns over the “noticeable lack of clarity and consistency” in the assimilation process.
After his resignation, the council’s disciplinary procedures found him guilty of gross misconduct – a sackable offence. The tribunal found that this was contrary to the council’s own regulations.
The tribunal dismissed Mr Alexander’s separate claim of victimisation.
A Camden Council press official said: “We will read the judgment carefully and decide whether there are lessons we can learn.”
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