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# Unfair Dismissal? Justice Done
- URL: https://onemanandhisblog.com/2003/07/unfair_dismissa/
- Published: 2003-07-26T00:09:01.000Z
- Updated: 2015-04-08T08:41:13.000Z
- Author: Adam Tinworth
- Tags: Journalism, mark hayes, NUJ, quantum

The latest issue of the [NUJ](http://www.nuj.org.uk/?ref=onemanandhisblog.com)‘s magazine, *the Journalist*, has an article by my former boss, Mark Hayes. I used to work for him on a magazine called *Hotel & Restaurant*, until 1996\. Late that year, the management gave me the choice of being made redundant or moving to a job I didn’t want on another one of their titles. I took the latter option, and less than a month later found myself a new job with my current employer.

The way they treated Mark was even worse, as his article describes:

> \*Management’s response was to unfairly criticise my performance, freeze my salary and threaten me with disciplinary action. I reached breaking point in May 2001, when I went off sick with a severe stress reaction to my workload and the way Quantum management were mistreating me; I lost my voice. I could not speak. \*

They drove him to the edge of a breakdown and then dismissed him while he was off sick. Two years later, with the backing of the NUJ’s lawyers, he has won £93,000, costs and a moral victory over Quantum Business Media.

It’s a damn shame it came to this, though. Mark is an extremely talented journalist and editor, and has the awards to prove it. It’s a shame that some publishing companies don’t have the intelligence to realise the gems they have in their organisations.