SENIOR officials at Scottish Borders Council have been slammed by a judge after a former senior manager was awarded more than £56,000 in compensation following an unfair dismissal Tribunal.

Anthony Carson, 51, was sacked from his regulatory services manager post at the end of 2016 on the back of ‘hearsay’ allegations of bullying.

Judge Ian McFatridge described the disciplinary process carried out at Newtown St Boswells as “one of the most woefully inadequate investigations of misconduct I have ever come across”.

Mr Carson, who had worked at the local authority for eight years, was accused of bullying by members of staff within the Regulatory Services department for scrutinising some of their mileage claims, requesting to see their notebooks while dealing with an external complaint, and not liking promotional material produced by one member of staff. The same members of staff made unfounded claims that he had discussed personal issues in an open office environment and had been intimidating during one-to-one meetings.

HR manager Fiona Young was tasked with investigating the bullying allegations. And chief financial officer David Robertson was given the job of chairing Mr Carson’s disciplinary hearing.

Both were heavily criticised by Mr McFatridge for their handling of the case as well as the evidence they gave at the Tribunal. He said: “I did not find their evidence to be reliable and neither witnesses appeared to be willing to assist the tribunal by answering questions openly and honestly.

“Even during evidence in chief Ms Young was not prepared to answer questions directly but simply leafed through the report and repeated sections of the report which she felt might be of assistance to the respondents’ (Scottish Borders Council) case “In cross examination she was evasive. Mr Robertson was also an entirely unsatisfactory witness. Like Ms Young he was unwilling to answer questions in a straightforward way.

“Mr Robertson also significantly changed his evidence at several points.”

The first Mr Carson knew of complaints being made about him came in January, 2016 during an informal meeting with his line manager, Brian Frater, although no details were presented. At a further meeting the following month he agreed to attend mediation with the complainer.

But in April, deputy chief executive Phil Barr wrote to Mr Carson instructing him to take special paid leave, which was later extended while an investigation took place.

Ms Young carried out the investigation between the April and August, while Mr Carson was banned from returning to work.

Judge McFatridge said: “Essentially Ms Young’s approach was to simply write down everything that was said without casting any critical eye over it.

“Her approach was that if someone said they were upset after an interaction with the claimant then this was taken to be evidence of bullying.

“She made no attempt to assess whether what the claimant was doing amounted to carrying out his management duties or not.

“There were also a number of occasions in the report where Ms Young demonstrated bias against the claimant.”

The disciplinary hearing, chaired by Mr Robertson, which began in November 2016 came in for similar criticism.

The Judge added: “Mr Robertson accepted impressionistic evidence to the effect that if individuals felt that they were being bullied and he believed them then that was evidence that the claimant was guilty of misconduct.”

Mr Carson was eventually dismissed on December 14, 2016.

Janet Stewart, UNISON regional organiser, represented Mr Carson throughout the disciplinary process.

Following the Tribunal’s findings, she said: “I am an experienced union official and I have never seen such a seriously damning verdict.

“This is a serious case. Scottish Borders Council conduct disciplinary procedures in a superficial manner - this must change.

“They do not give their employees the respect of a proper robust process. This case reminds them they are not above the law and it must act as a wake up call.”

Peter O’Donnell, from Thompsons Solicitors who represented Mr Carson, said: “This is one of the most scathing judgements we have seen from an Employment Tribunal.

“The judge finds that Scottish Borders Council have failed in almost every regard in terms of the investigation, the disciplinary decision, the process and lack of natural justice.

“They agreed with every criticism we made in this case.”

Following the Tribunal findings in Edinburgh, Mr Carson, who lives in Hawick, said: ”This has been very stressful.

“I am pleased that the tribunal agreed with me but it’s difficult to take pleasure from this decision as I lost my job, it has ruined my career, and they put me through a lot of stress.

“I want to thank Thompson Solicitors and UNISON for representing me.

“This is another reminder how important it is, even for senior managers, to join a trade union.”

We asked Scottish Borders Council to respond to the Tribunal findings.

Chief Executive Tracey Logan said: “Notwithstanding the decision of the employment judge, we are content that the decision to dismiss Mr Carson was the correct one for our organisation.

“While acknowledging that there are lessons to be learned from the judgement, we believe there are a number of factual inaccuracies within the judgement and the language used is, in many parts, unnecessarily personal and emotive.

"We are taking advice on the possibility of an appeal and will provide feedback to the Employment Tribunal service on the language used in the judgement.

“As an employer of over 5,500 employees, it is unfortunately inevitable that there will be instances when investigation and disciplinary action is required into allegations raised by staff concerning bullying and intimidation by management. the council has a duty of care to thoroughly investigate such allegations and we have a zero tolerance approach to bullying behaviours.

“We pride ourselves on dealing with these matters fairly and thoroughly, using rigorous procedures agreed with the recognised Trades Unions.

"We believe we followed agreed process in this case.

“In the last six years, eighteen employment tribunal claims have been brought against the council, including that of Mr Carson.

"Of the other claims, one was settled, five were withdrawn by the claimant before a hearing and eleven resulted in judgements in the council’s favour.

“It is therefore extremely disappointing to see the comments from Unison, as clearly the council’s record demonstrates that there is no fundamental flaw in the process that the council has in place.

"However, lessons can always be learnt, and we will look at the judgement in full and reflect on where any improvements to the process can be made."

Mr Carson was awarded the maximum amount of compensation available: £56,581.