Bogey man? Golf club owner fails to pay greenkeeper compensation

Golfers were yesterday urged to back their former greenkeeper owed more than £22,000 compensation after being unfairly sacked.

Members at Braes Golf Centre, near Falkirk, were told the club’s owner has still not settled with John Easton after he was dismissed without reason after almost 20 years.

Steven Matthews, a businessman and property developer, took over the club in 2019 before sacking Easton, the head greenkeeper, without warning two years later.

Easton, who had maintained the course for 19 years, had just reported back to work at the club, formerly Polmont Golf Club, in Maddiston, after being furloughed during the pandemic.

An employment tribunal in 2022 heard no reason was given for his sacking and ruled Easton, 64, was unfairly dismissed and awarded him £22,000 compensation.

The award included a 25% uplift because of Matthews’s “wholly unreasonable” failure to follow employment rules ensuring redundancies are justified.

GMB Scotland supported Easton’s claim for compensation and were at the club yesterday urging club members to pressure its owner.

Robert Deavy, GMB Scotland senior organiser, said: “The owner of this club portrays himself as a respectable businessman but his refusal to accept legal responsibilities is reprehensible.

“He is not only dragging his own name through the mud but is tarnishing the reputation of this club and its members.

“If he thinks this will go away if he ignores it long enough, he is going to be disappointed.”

Easton said: “I worked at this club for almost 20 years and know the owner’s actions do not reflect the character of the place.

“I would hope the many decent members here tell him that.”

Meanwhile, Falkirk Council has been urged to halt a land sale to Matthews, who intends to pay £20,000 for 2,871 square metres of ground, he claims, is needed to extend the club’s carpark.

GMB Scotland has urged the council to halt the sale and support workers’ rights and pay the compensation owed.

In correspondence with the union, the local authority’s lawyers insisted the sale cannot be halted but the union disputes that. Yesterday Euan Stainbank, who was a councillor before becoming Labour MP for Falkirk last year, joined a picket outside the club.

He said: “If I had known when voting to approve the sale of this land that more than two years later it would not be concluded and the purchaser owed thousands of pounds to an employee unfairly dismissed, it would have been a material factor in my decision.”

Falkirk Council said: “The council agreed to sell 2,871 square metres of land, close to Braes Golf Centre, in 2023 to a company called Ordhead Limited. The sale has not been completed.

“We have become aware of the employment dispute and while the Council has no role in the dispute, we understand the importance of any tribunal order being implemented.

“But the Council’s lawyers consider that it would be an improper consideration for the Council to halt the sale on the basis of the dispute in which it has no involvement.”

Accounts filed by Ordhead, Matthews’s company, earlier this year suggests it has capital and reserves of £1.8 million but no employees.