Judge Rules Man Fired for Visiting Pub on a Sick Day Did Nothing Wrong

Judge Rules Man Fired for Visiting Pub on a Sick Day Did Nothing Wrong. A Newcastle, England man called in sick to his employer Debmat Surfacing. He did so fairly often as he suffers from a lung condition. So there should be no issue, right? Wrong. Colin Kane, a 66-year-old driver, went to the pub on the day he called in sick. And he was spotted by a coworker who in turn old the bosses about Kane’s pub visit.  Kane received a call from his boss asking how he was feeling, Kane told his boss he had “been in bed all day due to his chest.” When Kane returned to work he was called into a meeting where he was scolded for going to the pub on a sick day. And a few days later Kane was fired.  When Kane attended his employment tribunal Judge Andrea Pitt agreed with Kane that he shouldn’t have been fired from his job. She ruled that Debmat Surfacing, “made a gross assumption..and there is no rule that an employee cannot socialize in whatever way they deem appropriate whilst absent from work through illness."

While I don't feel that visiting a pub on a sick day is the best decision you could make, I do agree that if that time off was his he can use it how he feels fit. The employee should have minded his own business and not immediately run back to report seeing Kane out. Sounds like he was just trying to start trouble.