Reform UK candidate lost employment tribunal after 'unfairly' sacking care worker who raised safety fears

A Reform UK candidate was accused of lacking "credibility" after he was ruled to have unfairly sacked a member of staff at his Scots care business who raised safety fears.

Mike Collier, who is standing for Nigel Farage's party in Clackmannanshire and Dunblane, lost an employment tribunal in Glasgow after representing himself at hearings in September 2021.

The tribunal found the businessman had on the balance of probabilities dismissed his employee for raising reasonable concerns over the safety and safeguarding of Collier’s elderly and vulnerable service users at his Ayr-based care business.

The carer had come forward to raise concerns that included theft, illegal drug use, and poor hygiene only to find themselves dismissed.

Collier, director of Cairllum Care Limited, spoke out at the tribunal just days after he told a local newspaper in Ayrshire "we support our staff as much as possible so that they can provide the best possible care".

Collier accused the claimant of "gossip" but his evidence was found to be "lacking in credibility", according to a written ruling issued by the Tribunals Service.

It also found he "was less than encouraging of the information" and that he "lacked candour".

At one point Collier denied having a conversation with a witness before later admitting it had taken place. He also claimed to have not seen evidence and then later claimed said evidence was a primary factor for the claimants dismissal.

The tribunal ultimately ruled the claimant’s disclosure about glove hygiene of a named care worker was protected.

The ruling stated: "The respondent and the claimant were both aware that many of the respondent’s service users were of an age and demographic that made them particularly vulnerable to Covid 19.

"The claimant’s belief that her disclosure tended to show such endangerment was objectively reasonable in all of the circumstances, including the well-publicised health risks and warnings about poor hand hygiene."

A Tory source told the Record: "This is just the latest Reform candidate to have said or done something completely inappropriate. The calibre of their candidates and their vetting process is embarrassingly bad."

Collier had previously moaned to the local press in 2021 that he had to turn away business because of a staffing crisis in the care industry.

He said at the time: "The reality is it is worse right now than it was even at the height of the pandemic and lockdowns. There is just no public awareness of how bad the problem is.

"We have had no option but to hand additional work back to the council this week because the priority and challenge is to provide sufficient staff for existing needs.

"There are simply not enough people to cover social care needs across the sector, which is why the staff we do have are working seven days a week, working their days off and struggling to take any leave.

"We have vacancies, we have increased pay and we support our staff as much as we can to ensure they can provide the best possible care and make a difference.

“The sector needs more of those people now, people who want to make a difference. I could employ 10 people in Ayrshire tomorrow – but we just can’t find those people.

“The NHS is always talked about in glowing terms, and rightly so, however social care is treated as a poorer relation — the truth is they need each other to be strong."

Reform UK and Collier failed to respond to requests for comment.

To sign up to the Daily Record Politics newsletter, click here