EXCLUSIVE by BILL HEANEY
A final result has been reached in the case of Brian Gourlay V West Dunbartonshire Council which may lead to the cash-strapped local authority having to make a huge compensation payment of hundreds of thousands of pounds to the unfairly dismissed employee.
Mr Gourlay, a disabled health and safety officer, was unfairly dismissed from his job in the old council headquarters at Garshake in Dumbarton, where he was employed for seven years.
The offer of compensation follows an Employment Tribunal remedial hearing which had ben scheduled for a year ago, but the outcome was delayed until last Friday.
The case, which was brought by Mr Gourlay on the grounds that the Council failed to make the necessary adjustments to his work station as they prepared to move office from Garshake to Church Street, and that he was victimised and discriminated against by the Council.
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For background to this report see also Bill Heaney’s Notebook on The Democrat now
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The case has dragged on for more than ten years, and the proposed compensation payment awarded to Mr Gourlay has over that period been boosted by bank interest.
The process has been referred to in the legal documents as “a long and winding road” of hearings which took their toll on Mr Gourlay, who was suffering from multiple sclerosis, diabetes and exhaustion during it.
Mr Gourlay, pictured above in Dumbarton Common walking his dogs, does not wish to comment at length about the case at this stage, and says that, as far as he is concerned “this is far from finished”.
It is his intention to take matters further by litigating against witnesses and others, including councillors, who gave evidence against him at the tribunal or who were part of the appeals process.
Mr Gourlay, who is a father of two, says he is minded to progress matters further still against people whom he believes “knowingly provided false and misleading information against him.”
He has been involved in the world of work from an early age, starting as a farm labourer on his uncle’s farm as a young teenager. After school he had a variety of jobs, including apprentice electrician and lorry driver before joining the newspaper industry in Glasgow at the age of 22 on the printing and production side. He gained qualifications in this industry remaining there until after his multiple sclerosis diagnosis.
One of his early occupational health doctors suggested that as his physical health might fail due to multiple sclerosis that he should think more about “using his brain”.
Therefore, while in the printing industry he gained an HNC in computing and an HNC in Business Administration from Cumbernauld College.
He won the SQA lifelong learning award in 1999 and as a result was invited to attend a lunch with the Queen in Stirling Castle.
While working for Local Government and the civil service (initially with Falkirk Council) he went on to complete a Master of Science Degree at Strathclyde University in 2007, with distinction. All studies took place whilst employed and were self-funded.
At the time of the ending of his employment with West Dunbartonshire Council, he was studying for a Ph.D. with Strathclyde University on Corporate Governance in a Modern Britain, though this was deferred in early 2014 due to workplace difficulties.
Mr Gourlay has not worked since his dismissal from work in 2015.
Other public bodies which have been involved in the case include Audit Scotland, the Scottish Public Pensions Agency, the Strathclyde Pensions Fund, the Pensions Ombudsman, the Pensions Regulator. the UK Information Commissioner, the Scottish Information Commissioner, Police Scotland, the Law Society of Scotland, the Scottish Legal Complaints Commission, the CIPD, HSE, IOSH and more.
Mr Gourlay told me: “I will be meeting with my lawyers this week to discuss these matters further. I want answers to questions I asked previously about people not acting as professionally as they should .
“I want the cover-up of deceptions and falsehoods in this matter to be fully revealed publicly and to know why West Dunbartonshire Council was prepared to spend such a large amount of valuable time and public money on this.”
Top of page: West Dunbartonshire Council’s former headquarters at Garshake in Dumbarton. Picture by Bill Heaney