Sam Smith's tribunal gets underway

Eighteen sacked pub managers lined up at an employment tribunal yesterday to claim unfair dismissal against North Yorkshire brewer Sam Smith's.

The nine management couples were dismissed from their jobs last year after refusing to make cuts in staff hours demanded by the company who wanted to drastically reduce its wages bill.

The managers claim demands made by the Tadcaster-based family brewer reduced staffing levels to the bone and placed unfair extra demands on their own hours and conditions.

The action is being led by former Doncaster pub managers Frank and Pam Marshall, ex licensees of the Holly Bush, Edenthorpe, Doncaster, who had run Sam Smith's pubs for the past 25 years.

The Marshalls are being used as a test case by the Unite union with the tribunal decision expected to determine the outcome of the eight other claims lodged with the court.

The brewery says the managers were sacked for refusing to carry out company instructions which constituted gross misconduct.

The couple say the extent of the cuts at the Holly Bush, which saw staff hours slashed by half from 89 to 45, meant the pub could no longer operate efficiently and put a massive onus on them to make up the time to fill the gaps.

"We feel we have been treated disgustingly by the company which we have served for a quarter of a century," said Pam Marshall.

"We tried to negotiate with the brewery but they did not want to know and finally dismissed us even though the staff grievance procedures had not been completed."

Other former brewery managers said they were annoyed and upset by the company's actions.

Carol and Jim Emmerson, ex managers of the Ridgewood, Edenthorpe, Doncaster, where they had worked for almost 10 years and were sacked around about the same time, said staff hours at the pub had been cut from 126 to 45.

"It was difficult to see how we could operate the business with those staff reductions," she said.

The hearing continues.