A call centre worker sacked after claiming Scottish Power was 'knowingly' overcharging customers for their energy bills has won a £28,000 payout.
Thippawan MacLean told a tribunal she felt it was neither 'legally nor morally appropriate' to ask customers to pay over the phone based on 'estimates' which could be higher than their actual bills.
Her employers fired her after being told by Scottish Power to get rid of 'lowest performers' who were 'missing opportunities' to take payment from customers and therefore failing to meet targets.
However, an employment tribunal ruled the firm had sided with Scottish Power and then conducted a 'sham' disciplinary process to get rid of her, which was inevitable and 'pre-judged'.
Mrs MacLean has now been awarded £27,861.30 in compensation for being unfairly dismissed.
The Scottish tribunal heard Mrs MacLean, who is of Thai nationality, worked as a call centre agent for company Kura for almost seven years.
In 2020, she was working in the 'Home Move' team, dealing with customers moving house and therefore starting and ending their utility supply with Scottish Power.
Up until her sacking in 2020, the tribunal heard Mrs MacLean was viewed as a 'successful' employee who had won 'awards and bonuses' for her work at Kura's call centre in Forres, on Scotland's northern Moray coast.
But at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, employees were forced to work from home which led to 'problems' in her ability to collect payments from customers over the phone.
The tribunal heard Scottish Power became increasingly focused on payment collections, and would monitor how much each agent collected each week.
When no attempt to collect cash over the phone was made it was regarded as a 'missed opportunity'.
After receiving insufficient training on her mobile phone, Mrs MacLean's cash collections dropped to 'zero' in May 2020.
She also felt it was 'wrong' to ask customers to pay a final bill based on an 'estimated reading' and believed the practice led to 'substantial overbilling' in many cases, the tribunal heard.
In June, and at Scottish Power's request, Mrs MacLean was selected as one of the 'lowest performing agents' by her company.
The tribunal was told Scottish Power planned to 'remove' some of these workers from the call centre.
During a meeting later that month Mrs MacLean was told she was being investigated for 'underperformance' but she argued it was neither 'legally or morally' appropriate to ask for payments based on estimations.
Days later she was invited to a disciplinary hearing in relation to 'underperformance and failure to follow a process'.
Mrs MacLean complained she was unable to take payment over the phone with the new technology she had been given, and reiterated that it was wrong to 'lie' and 'knowingly overcharge' customers.
However, she was sacked as a 'risk to the business' in the 'predetermined' decision ordered by Scottish Power.
Mrs MacLean opted not to appeal the decision and instead launched claims of sex and race discrimination, breach of contract and unfair dismissal.
The first three claims were dismissed but she won her claim of unfair dismissal on the basis the decision to dismiss her had already been decided and all disciplinary meetings were merely for show.
Employment Judge Sally Cowen said: "Mrs MacLean did not feel comfortable with asking people to pay amounts based on an estimated account.
"The Tribunal considered that this in part may have been a reason why Kura was not prepared to defend her to Scottish Power.
"However, the Tribunal conclude it was not reasonable for Kura to treat Scottish Power’s demand as a sufficient reason to dismiss.
"They failed to challenge Scottish Power’s order, nor to protect or mitigate the injustice to Mrs MacLean of such a decision.
"The decision to dismiss the claimant was entirely pre-judged and nothing which the claimant said at the investigation or disciplinary hearing stages was likely to make a difference.
"As [one employee] conceded, it was a sham. It therefore lacked both fairness and transparency."
Kura was ordered to pay Mrs MacLean £27,861.30 in basic and compensatory awards.
