A WORKER at a popular Oxfordshire farm shop was unfairly sacked over the death of newborn lambs while he was on holiday, a judge found.

A Polish farm labourer, referred to as Mr J Szymaniak, started work at Crazy Bear Farm and Farm Shop in Stadhampton in 2011.

But an employment judge found he was sacked by phone on Valentine’s Day 2018, near the end of a two-week holiday.

The farm shop’s owner, Jason Hunt, claimed Mr Szymaniak had told him and staff 12 days before that he was going to leave, failing to understand he had to give one month’s notice.

But the judge said it was ‘more likely than not’ that meeting ‘did not take place’ as Mr Hunt claimed.

He found Mr Szymaniak was told he was being sacked – in Polish by a woman called Anna – because lambs had been born and died as he was absent from work.

Mr Hunt said he had asked that Mr Szymaniak’s property was moved from his room, provided by the company.

Eventually, Mr Hunt said ‘just some bits of rubbish’ were put in a corridor.

Employment judge Tim Lang said Mr Hunt had ‘failed to show either the reason for the dismissal…or some other substantial reason…to justify the dismissal of an employee holding the position which the claimant held’.

The judge also found some of Mr Hunt’s evidence during the case was ‘entirely inconsistent’.

Mr Szymaniak wrote to Crazy Bear Farm’s managers on February 17. If he was being sacked, he was entitled to redundancy pay, he said.

A day later, he wrote to Mr Hunt again, who said he took a skiing trip for 10 days from February 15.

The judge said Mr Hunt was unable to give ‘documentary evidence’ to confirm the dates of the trip.

He found Mr Hunt discussed the email sent on February 18 with another member of staff but neither replied. Mr Szymaniak sent another email to Mr Hunt on March 6, asking again for a reply.

In it, he complained he had not been paid for his work in February and had not had a P45.

On March 7, Mr Hunt replied, dismissing his claim for redundancy pay as ‘ridiculous’.

Mr Szymaniak left his room provided by Crazy Bear Farm on or about February 22. He has since moved back to Poland.

Mr Lang found Mr Szymaniak’s complaints of unfair dismissal, breach of contract, unauthorised deduction from wages, failure to provide an itemised pay statement and for unpaid holiday pay were well founded.

He said Mr Szymaniak’s claim of failure to pay redundancy pay was not well founded and was dismissed.

Mr Szymaniak is now entitled to six weeks’ notice pay.

It was held last month and papers published last Friday. A remedy hearing will be held in November.

Crazy Bear Farm did not comment.