An electrician who suffered a heart attack while at work was asked if he could finish his shift before going to hospital, an employment tribunal has heard.

Rob Craggs, who worked on a site near Sunderland, told the tribunal he was given ‘hush money’ by a director at Tyne and Wear-based firm BMS Electrical Services as he recovered in hospital.

The married father was awarded £12,000 in compensation after his employers failed to contact him for almost six months while he was off work recovering.

He told the tribunal that his boss, Ian Derbyshire, ‘indicated that he would prefer if he finished his shift first’ when he complained he needed to go to hospital.

Mr Derbyshire said he did not remember saying anything like that. Company director William Storey also denied he had offered Mr Craggs ‘hush money’, calling him a ‘lying bastard’.

The tribunal heard Mr Craggs suffered depression and anxiety in the months following his heart attack. He said he was unable to walk down the street without frequently stopping and was also scared of driving in case he had another attack.

The tribunal heard his bosses never tried to contact him during his recovery – apart from the visit to hospital.

Mr Craggs quit his job after getting into an argument where he was told GPs give out sick notes for people to sit around and ‘play games on the computer’, the tribunal was told.

The panel concluded: ‘[We] would have expected a reasonable employer to have been in contact with the [Mr Cragg] about his health to find out how he was doing.

‘They were under a duty of care as his employer to look after his welfare and yet failed to do so.’

Mr Craggs’ complaint of breach of working time regulations and disability discrimination on the basis of unfavourable treatment were well-founded but his claim of unfair dismissal was dismissed.

At a remedy hearing he was awarded £12,095 in compensation for disability discrimination.

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