Drunken hotel manager described as being ‘like Shameless without the intellect’ on Tripadvisor who was arrested for assaulting customer and police officer should get no payout for being sacked, tribunal rules
- Donna Griffiths was accused of ‘vulgar’ behaviour towards her Cotswold staff
- She was described as ‘Shameless without the intellect’ on Tripadvisor
- She attacked a customer and an officer, a Bristol employment tribunal heard
- She sued the owners but won’t get a pay out says judge
The manager of a village hotel was sacked after her drunken behaviour led to customers leaving reviews on Tripadvisor saying she was ‘like Shameless without the intellect’.
Donna Griffiths was told at an employment tribunal hearing that while in charge, she was accused of ‘vulgar’ ‘hideous’ and ‘disgraceful’ behaviour towards Barrington Arms staff and guests in Oxfordshire.
One visitor likened scenes at the hotel to the Chanel four TV show Shameless but without the intellect.
She sued the owners on Wednesday, December 14, for unfair dismissal and won on a technicality. The judge ruled she will receive no compensation as her ‘unacceptable and blameworthy’ conduct had contributed to her being fired.
Donna Griffiths was accused of ‘vulgar’ ‘hideous’ and ‘disgraceful’ behaviour towards Barrington Arms’ staff and guests in Oxfordshire
She sued the Cotwolds hotel owners for unfair dismissal and won on a technicality but the judge said she wont be getting a pay out
Donna took over running the ‘snug and comfortable’ Barrington Arms in the Vale of White Horse in the Cotswolds in 2017.
Her three year reign culminated in an alleged drunken assault of both a customer and police officer at the hotel, an incident in August that led to her dismissal, the tribunal heard.
The hearing in Bristol was told Ms Griffiths’ behaviour came to light in 2020 after she had been left in sole charge of the hotel in the village of Shrivenham, Oxfordshire, during lockdown.
The owner of the business, Peter Saunders, was isolating at home with his wife during the pandemic as he was 82 and ‘vulnerable’, the tribunal heard.
On August 4, the hearing was told Ms Griffiths took the ‘afternoon off’ to go to another pub with the hotel’s chef to ‘have a few drinks and relax’.
Donna’s ‘vulgar’ behaviour led customers leaving negative reviews on Tripadvisor. One likened her behaviour to a Channel four T.V. series ‘Shameless’ but ‘with out the intellect’
She left the hotel in charge of a ‘friend’ who she claimed had hospitality training but Mr Saunders did not know them.
Her friend called her about some ‘difficult’ customers who were refusing to leave the bar, so Ms Griffiths and the chef returned to deal with them, the tribunal was told.
Ms Griffiths told the tribunal that, after asking them to leave, one customer ‘grabbed’ her arm, and she ‘pushed him away’.
Shortly after this, police arrived and arrested both her and the chef for suspected assault.
She accepted that during the arrest, ‘I may have raised my voice’ but denied assaulting the police officer.
Mr Saunders then came to the hotel – for the first time since the pandemic – and found a ‘confused situation’.
He looked at the CCTV and spoke to the police, asking them to let the two staff members go as they had just been doing their job in a ‘difficult situation’.
Peter then complained to police, ‘clearly supporting’ Ms Griffiths.
After being shown a police report about the incident, he changed his mind and issued Ms Griffiths with a written warning about being drunk at work.
He wrote: ‘I am still bewildered as to why you chose to abandon the hotel on a work day at a time of unprecedented crisis to go on a drinking spree at another pub.
‘It indicates to me that your drinking is totally out of control. I have also had reports of your aggressive behaviour to some of our customers when you are under the influence of alcohol.
‘I must warn you of the fact that if you are caught in the act of being drunk in charge of the hotel, you will be subject to instant dismissal for gross misconduct.’
The tribunal heard that, soon after, Mr Saunders’ daughter showed him the Tripadvisor reviews of the hotel.
The reviews were very negative about Ms Griffiths, calling her behaviour ‘vulgar’ and ‘disgraceful’.
One review compared her to the comedy TV series Shameless – a Channel 4 show featuring the feral Gallagher family – but ‘without the intellect’.
A review read: ‘I have never witnessed a manager being so vulgar and quite frankly hideous! The alcohol consumption this lady had clearly consumed had an impact on her speech.
‘The tone and manner in which staff were spoken to were disgraceful.’
Another wrote: ‘We saw a few people being quite loud having some drinks. One lady was the manager/landlady as she was constantly reminding her staff that ‘she was the boss.’
‘We tried to ignore how she was, but as the night went on she got louder and more rude, then all of a sudden she yelling at one of the guys she was sat with.’
A third said, ‘Avoid * like Shameless without the intellect’ and referred to the fact the pub is no longer ‘a destination of choice by many of the locals’.
They added it is often ‘either empty (surprise surprise)’ or filled with ‘loud vulgar and foul-mouthed patrons led by no less than the landlady herself’.
Mr Saunders told the tribunal he was concerned by the negative reviews, on top of the events of 4 August and the police report, and so he decided to investigate the claimant’s behaviour as manager.
As part of that investigation, one member of staff told Mr Saunders she often topped up Ms Griffiths’ drink with lemonade to slow her down, but she would sometimes get ‘funny’ with customers and ‘scream NO!’ when they came in.
The staff member said one Sunday evening, there was £3000 of unpaid tabs at the bar, and she refused to work that shift any longer as she couldn’t ‘stand the drama’.
Mr Saunders invited Ms Griffiths to a meeting on December 30, 2020 where she was fired.
But he had not told her in advance it was a disciplinary meeting, or that her job was at risk or tell her the findings of his investigation into her.
As a result, the tribunal ruled she had been unfairly dismissed as this was a ‘fundamental’ failure, and she ‘never had a chance’ to engage with the allegations against her.
She was awarded no compensation. Employment Judge Adrian Hogarth said her behaviour ‘was very likely to adversely affect the business and its reputation’.
‘The incident was a case of boorish behaviour when drunk on the premises. Whether or not she was on duty or acting as manager or a person in charge at the time, this was unacceptable and blameworthy conduct on the part of the manager of a hotel and pub.
‘The manager of a hotel should not be greeting members of the public when drunk and swearing at them. This conduct contributed to her dismissal.’
Ms Griffiths was, however, awarded £1,076 for Mr Saunders’ failure to provide her with a proper contract of employment.
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