Postman unfairly sacked after peeing in layby in Watford

The postman, who worked at the Royal Mail Watford depot for 17 years and had also been a Health and Safety officer for the CWU union, was fired for gross misconduct following the incident.

But an employment tribunal heard that several postmen have been caught peeing in public- even in people’s gardens – and not been given the sack.

One postman told the tribunal in Watford that there is “not a post person alive, man or woman, who had been doing the job for a length of time who had not been caught short without access to facilities and had to urinate in public”.

Mr Rawal was fired after his bosses received a complaint from a member of the public who said they were “completely shocked” to see a postman peeing at the side of the road.

The incident happened in Ascot Road 

The complaint read: “It was really upsetting seeing someone doing that on the street, especially someone from a big, famous and professional company as Royal Mail.

“That’s a very busy street where even children can see him. As I mentioned before, he could have used Morrisons toilets which are just around 300 metres down the road or Royal Mail delivery depot which is half mile away.”

When Mr Rawal was confronted about the incident in September 2017, he claimed that it was “so long ago” that he could not remember if it was him.

However, the veteran postman later admitted pulling over in a layby in Ascot Road to pee to “avoid urinating on himself or in the van”. He was sacked later that year.

Mr Rawal told the tribunal that there was “no way” that he could make it to the Morrisons Supermarket in Ascot Road or the town’s Royal Mail offices in nearby Caxton Way.

He named several other instances to the tribunal where colleagues had taken a wee in public – and still kept their jobs.

Veteran postman Adam Hicks said that “postman urinate in public all the time” and that it “happens regularly”.

He said that due to the nature of the job and the lack of facilities “there are instances where postman who are desperately bursting to go to the toilet and have no option but to urinate while on duty”.

And postman Abdulraheem Khalifah told the tribunal that it was “common knowledge” that some postmen working in Watford have urinated in public and none have been dismissed.

He said he was aware of another incident where a postman had urinated in a customer’s garden – and had got away with a “slapped wrist”.

The tribunal concluded that Mr Rawal had been unfairly dismissed, saying that postmen urinating in public “is not an uncommon matter”.

The panel dismissed Mr Rawal’s claim of race discrimination.