A Newton Abbot postman who was sacked in January following a row with a customer has won back his job and his employers ordered to make up any lost wages. Richard Bird lost his job as a postman/driver following an altercation with a business customer in November during which Mr Bird admitted swearing. His managers at Royal Mail Group Plc conducted a brief investigation and dismissed him, despite Mr Bird, 61, having a blemish-free record throughout his 241/2 years with the postal service. In July, an industrial tribunal in Exeter found that the company had acted unfairly by failing to investigate the case thoroughly and by not taking into account Mr Bird's exemplary record. A claim that Mr Bird had arrived late to collect mail from the customer had proved to be groundless after his tachometer reading confirmed he had been on time. Royal Mail admitted there had been 'serious shortcomings' in the way it handled Mr Bird's dismissal. On Tuesday, the board which heard the case rejected the firm's claim that it would be 'completely unacceptable' for Mr Bird to return to his job of postman/driver. The chairman, Neil Adlem, was similarly unimpressed with the firm's failure to send any managers to the remedy hearing, relying instead on legal representation. 'It is unfortunate that we don't have tangible audible evidence from Royal Mail,' he said. 'This is a cause for concern.' Mr Adlem also decided that Royal Mail's argument, put to the hearing by Stephen Woodman, that it had to save costs and was not recruiting was not relevant Instead, Mr Adlem ordered Royal Mail to reinstate Mr Bird by October 30 or face possible action. 'It is practicable to reinstate the claimant on the contract he was employed on,' he said. For each week since he was last paid on January 13, Mr Bird will receive £330, the amount he could have expected to receive in his pay packet. Mr Bird will not receive compensation as the aim of the hearing was only to 'put him in the position he would have been'. Mr Bird told the Advertiser he was 'ecstatic' at winning back his job and looking forward to working with his colleagues once more.
