A company has been fined more than £17,000 in compensation following the sacking of an employee who smelt of alcohol. Bond Retail Ltd was penalised by an Employment Tribunal because it had not followed the proper disciplinary procedures. The employee, Paul Hill, was one of a team of drivers who delivered Coca-Cola containers. Having made a delivery, a complaint was made by a Superdrug store that he stank of alcohol and he was summoned to a disciplinary meeting.

There Hill claimed that he had been drinking at his father's 65th birthday party the night before and that this was the reason for his odour; this excuse was accepted by his boss John Docherty. Later on Paul Hill was phoned by Docherty who said they had no choice but to sack him.

Because the proper procedures had not been followed, Hill was awarded a total of £17,270 for unfair dismissal and a further £260 in unpaid holidays.

Last year, in a similar case a tribunal ruled that a man was unfairly dismissed for being sacked after private investigators followed him on a booze run to France when he was on sick leave. Again the proper dismissal procedures had not been followed.

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