Another weird sacking

Another teacher has been sacked for what looks like a wholly fatuous and unjust reason; these stories come in at the rate of about two a week. Christopher Hammond, head of German at a private girls’ school in Reading, was booted out for having taken photographs of his pupils on a school trip. Or, at least, on the technicality of taking them on his own camera rather than using a ‘memory card or school-owned device’. None of the photos were remotely indecent, nor was there any suggestion he might be a bit of a wrong ‘un on the quiet.

Leaving Mr Hammond’s case aside, I wonder if these weird sackings are the consequence of employers not being able to get rid of people on perfectly good grounds, eg that they are utterly bloody useless at their jobs. Being utterly bloody useless is a tricky one to quantify at the inevitable tribunal, whereas with some harmless infraction of the rules you’ve got your victim bang to rights. Being utterly bloody useless is the one thing it is very difficult to sack people for.