The founder of Barrhead Travel, was wrongfully dismissed by the company who bought the firm for £36 million in 2018, his lawyer claimed yesterday.
Bill Munro, who had spent more than four decades building the company, had negotiated a deal to keep working for its new owners Travel Leaders Group.
The US-based firm made him redundant a few months later, claiming the post of chairman for Barrhead Travel was no longer needed, now the company was a subsidiary of TLG. However solicitor Stephen Miller, representing Mr Munro, said this was not the role he was employed to do and therefore the dismissal was unjustified and unfair.
Read more: Boss of firm who bought Barrhead Travel 'planned to sack founder'
Summing up on the concluding day of evidence, Mr Miller also argued the outcome had been predetermined, with the company “going through the motions” of a consultation process.
Mr Munro had been given an ambassadorial role after the sale, and it was accepted that the company didn’t need a chairman . “But that was the same at the time of the sale in February 2018 as it was in June,” Mr Miller said. TLG had “misunderstood the role it was making redundant,” he argued. The company’s executives, who were largely American and unfamiliar with UK employment law, had also failed to consider suitable alternative employment for him, Mr Miller claimed.
While TLG had offered him a revised contract, it had been reasonable for Mr Munro to decline to sign because the company’s refusal to preserve his continuity of service amounted to a “lack of protection of employment,” he said.
Read more: Barrhead Travel boss Bill Munro ‘thought he was utterly indispensable,’ tribunal hears
Meanwhile evidence from TLG president John O’Hara had “changed his mind” about Mr Munro’s situation in the course of considering Mr Munro’s appeal against dismissal after conferring with the company’s Chief Executive “seemingly unaware that it was unfair to do so,” Mr Miller said.
Alice Stobart, solicitor for TLG said the company had act in good faith and his role had genuinely become redundant. Despite Mr Munro’s failure to comply with TLG’s requirements, and repeated concerns about his unwanted interference in Barrhead Travel, Mr Chacko had offered him a potentially lucrative alternative contract, she said and an option for self-employment.
Read more: ‘I just want to work again’, says Barrhead Travel founder
Mr Munro is seeking compensation for lost earnings and reinstatement in his job. However due to bad feeling over his departure and the way he had disrupted the work of staff at Barrhead Travel, it would not be possible for him to return, Ms Stobart said.
A judgement is expected to be issued next month.
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