UK Employee wins £34,000 payout after being sacked for using medical cannabis

Uk Metro reports

A man who was sacked after failing a drugs test at work has been given a payout for unfair dismissal. Carl Pamment was told by bosses at recycling firm Renewi where he had worked for 14 years that the result was ‘perilous’ when he was fired last April.

He told them he was taking marijuana to help him sleep after suffering severe back pain but they dismissed him adding that it was ‘luck’ that he had not injured the public or colleagues. However, employment judge Paul Housego heard he was only ever a passenger said they should have taken his circumstances into account he was awarded £33,766.

He also said that the the cannabis, prescription morphine and opiates Mr Pamment was taking did not impact his work. Judge Housego said: ‘What is undoubted is that Mr Pamment’s back problem was entirely genuine. ‘He had frequent visits to the doctor.

He was due to have an epidural injection. He was given various different medications to help the pain, including morphine patches. ‘None seemed to work for him.

In December 2019 a friend told him that cannabis helped, and he bought some from a friend. ‘It worked for him, and helped him sleep, the pain being a problem preventing him sleeping well. Eventually his medication, perhaps with the cannabis, was effective enough for him to return to work.’

The judge concluded: ‘I conclude that the objections put forward are all manifestations of reluctance to have Mr Pamment back, based on the use of illegal drugs in the past, and not a genuine loss of trust in him. ‘There is, in my judgement at this point, no reason why it is not practical to reinstate him. ‘

I considered that Mr Pamment had made every reasonable effort to find employment in this most extraordinary of times. He is a person without qualifications, who happened into a job he liked and was good at.

 

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2021/05/07/man-wins-34000-payout-after-being-sacked-for-smoking-weed-to-treat-bad-back-14539261/?ito=cbshare

 

The Judgement

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