An electrician who spiralled into severe depression after his wife and children left him was sacked because his manager believed ‘GPs are not experts’.
Colin Devlin, who works at an aerospace company in Scotland, was hauled into a disciplinary hearing over a violent outburst at work.
But his manager at BAE Systems ‘simply discounted’ his mental health problems as mitigation before firing him, a tribunal heard.
Mr Devlin developed depression after his
partner of 12 years left him in February ‘entirely without warning’, taking his two daughters aged 11 and 10 with her.The tribunal heard this later caused him to spend weeks at home without eating and sitting alone in the dark.
Early this year, colleagues started noticing he was acting out of character, arriving late and being distant and withdrawn.
Mr Devlin, who started working for the Glasgow branch in 2016, would sometimes be found sitting alone in the dark in rooms where the lights had motion sensors.
Then in March, a colleague complained that Mr Devlin had ‘cracked him on the jaw’ without provocation and he was sent home.
But when John Shearer, fabrication facility manager at the Glasgow site, chaired a disciplinary hearing over Mr Devlin’s alleged assault on a colleague, he did not request information about his mental health from his GP.
The tribunal heard that it was because Mr Shearer ‘felt strongly that a GP, being a general practitioner, is not an expert’.
He said he would only believe Mr Devlin was serious about rehabilitation if he was in counselling ‘as they were experts in the field’.
Now the tribunal has ruled that Mr Devlin was unfairly dismissed, with a judge criticising the aerospace giant for failing to investigate his mental health as a mitigating factor.
Employment Judge Mel Sangster said: ‘Despite Mr Devlin putting forward his mental health as a mitigating factor in relation to the allegations, this was not investigated in any way.
‘No reasonable employer, faced with these circumstances would have failed to investigate them.’
After the violent outburst at work, Mr Devlin told his company that, for the next three to four weeks, he remained at home and ‘did not eat for 25 days’.
The tribunal heard: ‘He did not go out at all and barely left his couch. He did not eat and lost a lot of weight as a result.
‘He ran out of cigarettes and did not go for more. He had no contact with anyone. He did not charge his phone, so the battery died. He developed scabs on his face. He has very limited recollection of that period.’
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Mr Devlin spoke to occupational health and his GP about his wellbeing in May and was diagnosed with anxiety and depression.
Mr Shearer had argued that if Mr Devlin had genuinely been suffering from mental health problems prior to the incidents, he would have raised them with his line manager or mental health first aiders before.
He also noted Mr Devlin had not been prescribed medication, had not been referred for counselling, and could not give an ‘absolute assurance’ the incident would not be repeated.
After ruling that Mr Devlin was unfairly sacked, he made an order for him to be reinstated to his previous role.
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