A woman who handled complains at Sky for three decades was fired after regularly hanging up on customers before pretending they had been cut off.
Call centre worker Lorraine Hunter was dismissed from her role after she told subscription holders to wait for “just a second” before throwing the phone down on them, an employment tribunal has heard. She blamed technical issues, with callers forced to ring back and wait again in a queue.
Ms Hunter, from Edinburgh, Scotland, has lost her claim for unfair dismissal after she was sacked for gross misconduct when an investigation was launched in November 2024. Bosses grew suspicious that the agent was deliberately disconnecting customers’ calls, so recorded conversations.
View 3 ImagesBosses at Sky sacked her after an investigation (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
The long-serving worker would deal with high-profile and high-value customers and was tasked with resolving issues and making changes to their contracts. Seven phone calls were identified as being prematurely ended by Ms Hunter and she was caught out due to the fact that cutting off a call was a ‘two-step physical action’ – and unlikely to be done accidentally.
After one of the abruptly-ended calls, the agent claimed the reason she did not immediately call the customer back was that she “must have dialled the wrong number”. She was asked to attend a conduct meeting on May 28 last year, where the suspicious calls were played to her.
View 3 ImagesThe woman appealed the decision – and lost (stock photo)(Image: Getty Images)
The next week, she was formally dismissed and was told: “You have breached our policies by disconnecting customers and failing to call customers back which represents a significant risk moving forward.”
She appealed the decision, claiming she had not hung up and blamed technical issues. The decision was upheld but Ms Hunter then took her claim of unfair dismissal to an employment tribunal in Edinburgh.
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Employment Judge Michelle Sutherland sided with Sky and said it the entertainment and connectivity company were entirely reasonable to dismiss her. In a written statement, the judge concluded: “[Sky] had a reasonable belief that [Mr Hunter] had deliberately and prematurely disconnected customer calls (i.e. hung up on customers).
“[Sky] had carried out a reasonable investigation and formed that belief on reasonable grounds. [Sky] is a very large employer with significant administrative resources and a dedicated HR function. Having regard to the size and administrative resources of [Sky] and the disciplinary process as a whole, there was no unreasonable failure to comply with their own disciplinary procedure or the ACAS Code of Practice.
“[Sky] acted reasonably in all the circumstances in treating that as a sufficient reason to dismiss [Mr Hunter] notwithstanding her long service without prior warning. [Mr Hunter’s] dismissal was fair and her complaint of unfair dismissal is accordingly dismissed.”