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A postman was sacked after he forged a customer’s signature and left her undelivered parcels in a rubbish bin – only for them to be thrown away before she got to them.
Samuel Shirley told an employment tribunal he had an ‘agreement’ with the householder that he would leave her deliveries in her bin if she was out.
The panel heard he had told her it was her ‘responsibility’ if something happened to her parcels and tried to blame her for not checking her bin in time.
Unfortunately, the woman did not see the red note he put through her door to alert her until it was too late and the deliveries were mistaken for rubbish and disposed of.
Mr Shirley was sacked from Royal Mail after 26 years service for gross misconduct after bosses concluded he had left the parcels in the bin so he could leave work early.
He then sued for unfair dismissal at a tribunal where he claimed it was ‘a matter of opinion’ that he had failed his duty to ‘safely’ deliver the mail.
And although the panel said it had ‘sympathy’ for Mr Shirley, it dismissed his claim as it ruled it was right of Royal Mail to assume he may do the ‘same thing again’.
The hearing in Glasgow was told the postman first began working at the Glasgow based delivery office in 1993.
In January 2019, Mr Shirley attended an annual integrity meeting to remind staff of the ‘obligations’ of the Royal Mail and its staff to not leave parcels and letters ‘unsecure’.
But the panel heard the meeting was held on the anniversary of Mr Shirley’s mother’s death and that he ‘might have been there in body but not of mind’.
Two months later, Mr Shirley left the two parcels in a blue bin next to a customer’s house and signed for a parcel on her behalf, the panel heard.
She then made a complaint as she not retrieved them before the bins were collected.
The tribunal was told Mr Shirley thought they would be safe as bins were not emptied until the next day and he had a ‘long-standing agreement’ of more than two years with the householder.
Following an investigation, Royal Mail found Mr Shirley had committed two counts of gross misconduct as he had ‘forged’ her signature before leaving the items in the bin.
He was then sacked in April 2019 without notice which he appealed on the basis the ‘penalty was too harsh’.
But Alan Rankin, Royal Mail’s appeal officer, concluded that Mr Shirley had done it so that he could ‘finish early’ and rejected his appeal, the panel heard.
Mr Shirley then took the matter to an employment tribunal but his claim for unfair dismissal failed.
The panel, headed by employment judge Peter O’Donnell, concluded: “Mr Shirley’s comments about the customer not checking her bin indicated a lack of remorse and was an attempt to shift blame to the customer.
“The tribunal found his answers to be evasive and an attempt to avoid admitting that he did know that he had acted in a manner which was a breach of Royal Mail’s rules.
“There was also evidence from Mr Shirley that he was aware that he should not be leaving items or signing for mail although his position was not always consistent.
“However, the tribunal considers that the decision-makers did have evidence from Mr Shirley that he did know the correct procedures.
“No matter how much sympathy the Tribunal may have with Mr Shirley, it was not for the tribunal to substitute its own decision
“Mr Shirley also stuck to the position that his agreement with the customer excused his actions without ever really accepting that he should never have made this in the first place.
“The tribunal considered that it was reasonable for both Alan Mullen, the dismissing officer, and Mr Rankin to conclude that Mr Shirley, if he had continued in employment, could not have been trusted to not do the same thing again.”
