Landmark ruling found lorry driver fairly dismissed for refusing to wear a face mask

People Management - 26 February 2021

In a recent landmark judgment a lorry dirver was found not to have been unfairly dismissed for refusing to wear a face mask at work.

Raoul Parekh, partner at GQ|Littler, said employers would welcome this employment decision, but warned it “doesn’t tell us much” about how future cases of Covid PPE might be dealt with by the courts.

“The employee here was dismissed because he had damaged the employer’s relationship with its key customer by refusing to wear a mask when asked,” he said, adding that the case could have been avoided if the employer and their customer had “been clearer about the PPE requirements”.

“As interesting as this case is, employers will have to wait a bit longer for the first ruling on whether discipline or dismissal for refusal to comply with the employer’s PPE guidance is justified,” Parekh added.

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