A disgraced ambulance driver was rightly sacked after pulling over for churros and coffee during his shifts, a tribunal has ruled.
Incredibly, the unnamed worker continued to make his pitstops after being caught out and warned, and even when he had patients on board.
After making the unscheduled stops, which lasted for up to 20 minutes, he then drove at speeds of up to 143km/hr to ‘make up for lost time’, a court heard.
The extraordinary case was heard at the High Court of Justice of Castilla-La Mancha this week.
The driver had taken the ambulance company to court and was seeking €35,000 for ‘unfair dismissal’.
The case was first thrown out by the Labour Court of Guadalajara, which upheld the disciplinary dismissal.
The employee then filed an appeal at the High Court of Justice in Castilla-La Mancha, which has also dismissed the case.
After hearing from the driver the company, the court found that his conduct seriously violated contractual good faith.
According to the ruling, the events that led to his dismissal began on March 16, 2023, when a patient complained that he had not been picked up at his usual time.
The company detected that the driver had not activated the tracking control system and, after contacting him, he claimed he had forgotten.
This was not the first time, as he had previously been warned for not turning the tracker on.
A disciplinary file was opened and the driver’s service history was reviewed. It was then found that he made unauthorised stops of up to 20 minutes, including at a churro shop in Sigüenza and a cafe in Jadraque, sometimes with patients on board the ambulance.
Furthermore, it was verified that on April 12 of that same year, he started his shift later than scheduled and, to make up for lost time, traveled at 143 km/hr.
In his testimony, the driver did not deny the incidents, but attempted to justify them by citing health problems and technical failures.
He claimed he was unfairly sacked by the company because he was a union representative, which he said violated his fundamental rights.
But the court said the driver’s alleged conduct was duly proven and classified as very serious offences under the collective bargaining agreement, making his sacking fair.
These included unauthorised breakfast stops, even with patients in the ambulance; repeated failure to comply with the tracking system; and driving at excessive speeds (up to 143 km/h) to make up for time.
