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Worker who mistakenly sent abuse to customer wins unfair dismissal claim
- Meliesha Jones, a part-time administrator at Vale Curtains and Blinds, mistakenly sent an email to a customer calling him 'a twat', instead of the company’s installations manager.
- Due to her actions, Jones was sacked for gross misconduct, though she recently won an unfair dismissal claim, resulting in £5,484.74 in damages.
- The customer repeatedly complained about his order with Vale Curtains and Blinds and demanded a full refund of the cost of his curtains.
- Jones wrote, 'Hi Karl – Can you change this ... he’s a twat so it doesn’t matter if you can’t,' but instead of forwarding the email, she clicked reply and sent the email to the customer.
- Jones apologised profusely to the customer when they called, but the customer's wife wanted to speak to a manager.
- The company was investigated for its mishandling of the incident but failed to follow a justifiable procedure when dismissing Jones.
- An appeal was lodged but was denied by an employment judge, who ruled that the workplace's disciplinary procedure was a sham designed to placate the dissatisfied customer.
- In 2005, Alastair Campbell similarly and mistakenly sent an expletive-laden email to a BBC Newsnight reporter calling him a 'twat'.
- Blair’s former communications director emailed Andrew McFadyen after he inquired about the mastermind behind adverts depicting Michael Howard as a flying pig and a Shylock-type character.
- Campbell later said the email was sent in error and that he was not very good at his Blackberry's email features.
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