Bar manager sacked after whistling at colleagues taking cocaine and drinking at work wins £33,000

A bar manager who was dismissed for warning her bosses about drug and alcohol consumption by colleagues while on shift has been awarded more than £33,080 in compensation.

Nadine Fallone reportedly ‘rocked the place’ at Peckham Levels in south London after telling owner Preston Benson that staff were stealing booze and offering each other cocaine.

Feeling her concerns were not being heard, Ms Fallone also spoke to her line manager, but this too apparently fell on deaf ears.

Mr. Benson was then forced to seek advice from an outside HR firm, sparking an investigation into his company, which reportedly led him to call Ms. Fallone a “pain in the side.”

As a result of this investigation and a mental health absence, Mr. Benson ultimately fired Ms. Fallone in February 2023.

Now a Croydon employment tribunal has ruled in Ms Fallone’s favor and upheld her claims of unfair dismissal.

The tribunal heard how Ms Fallone started working for Mr Benson at his Peckham Levels company in August 2022.

The business consisted of a transformed parking garage with approximately 100 independent businesses, with a bar and café where various events took place.

In December that year, the tribunal was told that Ms Fallone noticed a number of bar staff taking bottles of wine from the bar and appeared to be drunk as the venue hosted a World Cup watch party for the England-France clash.

Later that month, on New Year’s Eve, Ms Fallone raised further concerns with Mr Benson when she witnessed an employee removing ‘no smoking’ signs from the bar’s terrace, in breach of licensing rules.

Another incident occurred in January 2023 when a fellow employee told her that she had been offered cocaine by a colleague as she was leaving.

Ms Fallone regarded this as a ‘serious matter’ and reported it to her line manager, who admitted she had used cocaine with the same colleague on New Year’s Eve.

As a result, Mr. Benson arranged a staff meeting, which Ms. Fallone was unable to attend.

The former bar manager told the court that after this conversation she noticed ‘a change in the attitude of other staff at work towards her’ and felt she was being ‘ignored’ by colleagues.

In the aftermath of this incident, Ms Fallone was removed from the company’s roster and although this was eventually resolved, she was placed on a nine-day leave of absence by her doctor in February after she addressed how the debacle had affected her mental health.

However, after informing her line manager of her absence, she was asked to cover a shift that evening.

Ms Fallone declined and during her time off work she was made aware that a duty manager position at the company, which corresponds to her position, was being advertised online.

When she returned to work on February 16, she was fired for “business reasons.”

The tribunal was told how in the aftermath of her dismissal, Ms Fallone’s confidence was ‘bludgeoned’ and her mental health continued to deteriorate.

Ultimately, the tribunal found in her favor, recognizing that Ms Fallone had raised perfectly reasonable concerns with her employer, stating: ‘The use or potential use of drugs on the premises and a culture of acceptance of drugs may lead to unacceptable sexual or violent behavior under the law. influence of alcohol and/or drugs’.

Judge Lisa Clarke added in her judgment that the “underlying and principal reason for Mr Benson’s decision to dismiss (Ms Fallone) was the protected disclosures she had made which, if properly addressed acted would require him to undertake a substantial revaluation. of management and operating procedures at Peckham levels’.