An employee at the BMW assembly line has received £17,000 in compensation after being fired by bosses for going to a local fast food chain during his lunch hour.

Ryan Parkinson, who worked as an operative at the factory, was accused of having "disappeared" while working overtime.

The worker was said not to have told his bosses that he was leaving, something the man strongly refutes.

After a disciplinary investigation, he was fired before overturning the result in an appeal.

However, he was later fired again for leaving the plant to collect sandwiches from his car but was also able to successfully challenge this.

Mr Parkinson, who was hired by a recruitment agency called GI Group, was awarded £16,916 in compensation and unpaid wages.

During the appeal, Employment Judge Stephen Vowles said that GI Group had "failed to investigate the assertions by [Mr. Parkinson] and his trade union representatives that this was a widespread practice done during break times by dozens of other employees.

"There was no evidence of any procedure in place by [GI Group] for obtaining permission to exit the site or to notify a supervisor of exiting the site or the recording of any such permission or notification.

The Northern Echo: Canva - The BMW worker was awarded nearly £17,000 by a tribunalCanva - The BMW worker was awarded nearly £17,000 by a tribunal (Image: Canva)

"Leaving a secure area through a turnstile for a few minutes to visit a car in the company car park when, it seems, that many other employees did exactly the same, though not investigated by [GI Group], did not amount to gross misconduct.

"He left his place of work to visit his car to collect his sandwiches during a break."

The Tribunal was told that the supervisor had filed a report claiming the worker to have been "missing off site" during the first incident on a Sunday night overtime shift in 2018.

Later, during that shift, Mr Parkinson became upset and left the premises to go home but was questioned by his bosses over his lunch break three days later.

He explained that while everyone was discussing getting a kebab, he wanted to get a Burger King.

However, when he was collecting his item, he was told that his co-workers would have to work through their breaks as their food had not arrived.

He returned with his items and was confronted by a supervisor who claimed he did not say he was leaving.

He later signed off work for anxiety and stress until 2019 and faced a disciplinary hearing three months after returning which sacked him before he was able to overturn this and was fired again.