Barrhead Travel founder Bill Munro and US firm Travel Leaders Group have made their final submissions in an unfair dismissal claim brought by Munro.
A written decision is due to be made in around four weeks, where the employment tribunal will decide if Munro is entitled to any damages he seeks for loss of earnings – and if he is entitled to resume his job.
He was made redundant months after being given an advisory role as part of the £36 million deal completed by the US firm in 2018.
Munro personally received £9 million from the deal, and was being paid £67 an hour on a zero-hours contract for an ‘ambassadorial’ role before his dismissal.
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Last week’s tribunal in Glasgow heard that Munro, who founded the travel agency in 1975, refused to sign a new contract which he claimed was because it did not factor in his 42 years continual service – and was worried he would be sacked soon after.
Travel Leaders’ solicitors said boss Ninan Chacko had “no intention” to sack Munro, but was forced to after Munro “threw [the contact] back in their face”.
Munro argued that he was unfairly sidelined from the business, but Travel Leaders said Munro would not let go of management duties and believed himself “utterly indispensable” to Barrhead.
Summing up on the concluding day of evidence on Friday (November 15), Munro’s solicitor Stephen Miller said the outcome had been predetermined, with the company “going through the motions” of a consultation process.
He argued that Travel Leaders’ American bosses were unfamiliar with UK employment law and that the contract offered to Munro offered a “lack of protection of employment”.
Alice Stobart, solicitor for Travel Leaders Group, said the company had acted in good faith and that Munro’s role had genuinely become redundant.
She said that regardless of the outcome of the case, the bad feeling caused by Munro’s departure had made it impossible for him to return.