Monks lose unfair dismissal case

A tribunal has ruled that a handyman and his wife who were sacked by an order of monks were unfairly dismissed. They had worked for the order of Cistercian monks for 23 years. They were given just 10 minutes’ notice of the redundancies and told to leave their island cottage within a month. They were given redundancy payments of £675 and £540, and a ‘friendship payment’ of £1,000. Neither had been given a written contract.