Last chance of reprieve for sacked train driver

SARAH FRIDAY was launching a fresh bid to get back her 25,000a- year job as a driver with South West Trains today.

An industrial tribunal is meeting to hear the case of Ms Friday whose dismissal on 15 February sparked three 24-hour strikes at Waterloo station by the Rail Maritime and Transport Union.

Thirty-five-year-old Ms Friday, a train driver for 12 years with SWT and a health and safety representative for RMT drivers at Waterloo, was charged with failure to do her job properly and sacked for "breach of contract".

She was accused of being unavailable to drive her scheduled service, forcing SWT to find a replacement driver after a 12-minute delay, and of refusing to hand over her driving licence when requested.

A third charge that she did not seek permission before going to the lavatory was dropped on a "technicality" at an internal SWT appeal which upheld her dismissal.

Though Ms Friday lost an earlier appeal at an employment tribunal one month ago her new appeal, at an industrial tribunal in Croydon, still hinges on her claim that she was sacked because of her activities as an RMT representative.

SWT denies the charge and maintains that Ms Friday was "dismissed after a number of verbal and written warnings".

A spokesman for SWT said: "We've always said that the industrial tribunal should be allowed to decide. That's the way it works for everybody in this country and it should be good enough for Sarah Friday.

"We don't want to prejudge the findings but we are confident that the tribunal will decide that she was treated fairly. If the tribunal does decide that Sarah Friday was not treated fairly and in no way contributed to her dismissal, we will of course abide by the decision of the tribunal."

Should the decision go in Ms Friday's favour it is thought likely that she will demand her job back. "We would definitely want the tribunal to order her reinstatement," said an RMT spokesman. "If the tribunal does not decide in favour of reinstatement, we would at least want her to be compensated accordingly."

But he added: "The only trouble is there can be no compensation for the job of a driver.

Drivers are reasonably if not quite well paid and then there are pensions attached to them."

Commuters using SWT services will welcome an end to the dispute which has seen strikes at Waterloo station on 23 March, 31 March and 20 April.

The station is used by more than 200,000 passengers a day and the strikes have disrupted services as far afield as Dorset and Hampshire.

More than 80,000 workers alone depend on SWT to commute in and out of London from Surrey and Hampshire.

The appeal is expected to last five days.

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