A rail union has threatened to strike unless a signaller who was unfairly sacked after being accused of calling a cleaner a “Nazi food thrower” is reinstated.
Michael Knox, 61, was sacked by Network Rail in February 2022 after he was alleged to have called a cleaner a “f—–g Polish Nazi food thrower” for cleaning out the office fridge.
But he was awarded a total of £76,200 in compensation on Monday when an employment tribunal ruled that he did not use the phrase.
The RMT union has now threatened to strike if Mr Knox is not given back his old job at the Thames Valley Signalling Centre, in Didcot, Oxon, which is responsible for signalling trains from Paddington to the Welsh border.
A spokesman for the union said: “Following Mr Knox’s successful claim for unfair dismissal, breach of contract and the fact the tribunal found that he did not say what he was accused of, we demand his full reinstatement into his role at Network Rail immediately or we will consider our industrial response.”
Members of the union, to which Mr Knox belonged, previously voted for strike action after he was first dismissed.
‘Kicked off’
Mr Knox was found by managers to have used the phrase when he “kicked off” after seeing the office fridge had been cleaned out by agency cleaner Bogamil Jacek Plaszcyca in January 2021.
Mr Plaszcyca’s agency checked fridges every Friday and would dispose of any food that was not named and dated.
The policy had caused “friction” in the office and anger about it had been “rumbling on for some time”, the tribunal was told.
After an investigation, the signaller was invited to a disciplinary hearing to face an allegation of calling the cleaner a “f—–g Polish Nazi food thrower”, the tribunal heard.
When interviewed by his managers, Mr Knox admitted going into the kitchen, seeing some of his son’s food on the counter and telling a colleague: “It’s a f—–g disgrace.”
But he denied saying anything offensive to the cleaner, the tribunal heard.
Setting out the reason for dismissal, a manager said Mr Knox had “failed in his capacity as an influential person within that workplace to stop this behaviour from happening”.
The panel was told that Mick Lynch, the RMT general secretary, had requested a director’s review of the decision but it was rejected.
‘Ruckus and commotion’
The tribunal concluded that Mr Knox had been “loud” and at the centre of a “ruckus and commotion” but that it could not be sure what was actually said.
The panel said: “We find, on the evidence, that any inappropriate words said were said for the benefit of those in the operations room, rather than directly to the cleaner.”
It added: “We have found that the claimant’s dismissal was substantively unfair.”
The signaller was awarded £8,700 damages for breach of contract, a basic award of £15,500, as well as £52,000 compensation for unfair dismissal.
However, the tribunal declined to order Network Rail to reinstate Mr Knox to his previous position, saying it could not be “carried into effect with success”.
It said: “We have found that the claimant should not have been dismissed, however that is not the same as finding he should now, three years later, be placed back into that working environment.”
Mr Knox had worked for Network Rail since 1995 and had been an RMT representative since 2012.
