PREVIEW

WORDS BYLINE: James Pallant
A warehouse worker has been awarded £30,000 for unfair dismissal after his employers hired private investigators to follow him.
Bosses at Aliaxis UK suspected Neil Wilson, from Ashford, of faking a disability after seeing reggae music videos he had posted on social media, showing him singing and “dancing”.
The plastic piping manufacturer even hired professional snoops to track and film the dad-of-four walking “at a brisk pace” through an airport.
But Mr Wilson won an employment tribunal against Aliaxis, based in Lenham, near Maidstone, with the panel saying the footage was not the “damning evidence” the company had believed it to be.
The 41-year-old said the experience of being followed still haunts him.
“When I kept on seeing the same people outside my house, my friends said I was being paranoid,” he said.
“I tell myself, it's all over now, they're not following me any more, but it traumatised me.”
Mr Wilson was signed off work by a doctor after suffering injuries to his hand, wrist and back during workplace accidents in 2022.
But Aliaxis accused the Ashford resident of defrauding a company income protection insurance scheme by faking his disability - and fired him after an occupational health assessment found he was incapable of doing his job.
However, following a tribunal in May last year, a panel ruled his dismissal was unlawful and, in a remedy decision published this month, ordered the multinational firm to pay out thousands in compensation, including £13,000 for injured feelings.
He said: “I always listen to this Bob Marley song, ‘Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights’. It helped pull me through.
“I hope the ruling shows other people, no matter what, you should stand up for your rights.”
Mr Wilson’s role at the depot involved moving, packaging and labelling heavy pipes and fittings - and the manual labour put strain on his body.
“One day I was pulling out a pipe with all my strength, and I dislocated my hand and wrist,” he said.
“And then there was another accident where I picked up this pipe and I felt this sharp pain in my back, in between my legs as well. I was in so much agony, I started crying.
“Since that day, I’ve had pain. Every morning, I wake up with pain. I have sleepless nights because of the pain.”
He was later diagnosed with myofascial dysfunction of the lumbar spine - a chronic back pain disorder.
Doctors signed him off work in May 2022. He has not worked since and now relies on universal credit and personal independence payments (PIP) to pay his bills.
In January 2023, he began receiving 70% of his usual wages through a company income protection insurance scheme.
But tribunal documents say Aliaxis’ human resources director, Joanne Askham, grew “personally persuaded that [he] was a malingerer” and hired private investigator firm, TenIntelligence, to collect evidence.
During the hearing at Ashford last year, a panel of Employment Judge Sean Jones KC, Judith Clelow and William Dixon watched the surveillance videos.
One showed Mr Wilson walking between a pharmacy and KFC on Beaver Road, Ashford. Another captured him going to and from the town’s library.
Agents noted in a report prepared for Ms Askham: “Unfortunately, as of yet, we have not observed the subject undertaking any activity that would definitively disprove his injury claims.
“However, we have noted that he walks at a relatively brisk pace.”
In February 2023, Mr Wilson travelled to Jamaica - where he is originally from - to attend a family member’s funeral.
The tribunal judgment says when he returned, “waiting for him at the airport was TenIntelligence whose agent took three short clips of [him]”.
“He is seen emerging into the arrivals hall. He is pushing a suitcase on wheels,” the judgment says.
While Mr Wilson was overseas, Ms Askham wrote to the company insurers telling them to cancel his claim.
She also trawled social media for evidence of his well-being, claiming in her evidence to the tribunal "it was standard practice” for an employee on long-term sick leave.
An amateur music producer working under the stage name, Reggae Vibes, Mr Wilson would post music videos on his Facebook page.
The tribunal heard he was called to attend what Ms Askham had described as an "informal welfare meeting" on March 16, 2023.
But court papers say Aliaxis executives “ambushed” Mr Wilson, presenting the clips and private investigator videos as evidence that he had been faking his back pain.
Ms Askham told him the insurance provider had stopped the income protection payment, but the tribunal panel noted she failed to mention that this had been done on her instruction.
The panel was particularly critical of the fact that she had cancelled Mr Wilson’s insurance claim "without making any effort at all to contact [him]”.
It concluded that her actions were designed to "frighten [him] into resigning" by removing his income while he was vulnerable.
Court papers report Ms Askham told Mr Wilson in the meeting: “You were observed coming off a long-haul flight and collecting your case.
“You have been seen walking quickly and freely and it doesn’t appear that you are in discomfort.”
Reflecting on the revelation, Mr Wilson said: “It was devastating. The worst part of it was when she told me, ‘We have people following you.’
"I kept on seeing the same people, watching my house, when I went to exercise in the park, the same people were there watching me – my paranoia was all over the place.”
“After she showed me the videos, I didn't know what to think. It seemed like everybody was after me.”
In the meeting, Ms Askham also referred to Mr Wilson’s Facebook posts.
“You have posted images of yourself whilst away and have been dancing,” she told him.
“The surveillance builds a picture.”
But Mr Wilson said: “I wasn’t dancing - I was shuffling.”
And the tribunal agreed. Commenting on the music videos, the judgment says: "He seems to us to be moving rhythmically from foot to foot. He is not, in any meaningful sense, dancing.”
It also notes that his baggage did not appear heavy, and that the clips of him at the airport did not demonstrate that he was in pain, nor free of pain.
"He is not moving energetically or particularly exerting himself. He is not having to bend over or lift anything,” it says.
"Although these videos were put to [Mr Wilson] as if they were damning evidence, we really could not see why they were thought to demonstrate that proposition.”
Mr Wilson said many of the Facebook videos were old ones he had been reposting to maintain his social media presence.
Concluding the March 16 meeting, Ms Askham told Mr Wilson to choose from three options: resign, undergo capability proceedings (to determine whether he was still able to perform his job) that could result in his dismissal, or be reported to the police for fraud.
But Mr Wilson refused and protested his innocence.
Since Mr Wilson would not resign and Aliaxis could not prove fraud to a disciplinary standard, the company proceeded to capability proceedings.
And after an occupational health assessment found Mr Wilson was unable to do his job, the firm terminated his employment.
The tribunal found this sequence damning as Aliaxis fired him for being incapable of work, while simultaneously blocking the insurance benefits he was entitled to because they thought he was faking his incapacity.
Judges ruled Mr Wilson’s dismissal was unlawful and that it constituted disability discrimination.
Asked how it felt to hear the tribunal rule in his favour, he said it was a huge relief.
“At last, somebody heard me,” he said.
“It wasn't about the money, but hearing the judge it felt like I got a little bit of my dignity back, you know, a little bit of myself back. I didn’t think I was going to win.”
Aliaxis was ordered to pay Mr Wilson a compensatory award of £12,826.30, £13,000 for injury to feelings, a basic award in the sum of £936.48, plus £4,030.17 in interest.
Mr Wilson has not worked since the workplace accidents, but says he would like to if he were able to get his pain under control.
“I’ve been signed off work since 2022. The pain from that time has stayed with me. I would like to work but my condition makes it really difficult as it’s not easy for me to be on my feet.”
Asked about his musical exploits, he added: “I still write music, just not as often as I used to.”
Although the case overall was a victory for Mr Wilson, the tribunal did not side with him on everything.
They dismissed a claim that Aliaxis failed to make reasonable workplace adjustments for him, that the company’s capability proceedings were discriminatory and that the “ambush” meeting of March 16 constituted harassment.
A spokesperson for Aliaxis said: “The case has been thoroughly examined and has gone through the judicial process and therefore we have no further comment."