A long-serving worker at a Powys water bottling plant who was sacked for having a smoke on the premises has won his claim for unfair and wrongful dismissal.

But an employment tribunal held in Llandudno found that Richard Andrew had contributed 50 per cent to his dismissal because he was well aware of the rule.

Mr Andrew was a production team manager at Montgomery Waters Ltd in Churchstoke, where the no-smoking rule was introduced in 2004, the year he joined the firm.

Among the company’s customers are Tesco and the Co-op.

The only place where it was allowed was in a “ smoking hut”, but bosses were told that Mr Andrew had been seen smoking in the tank farm, where water is stored in large metal tanks, and is accessible only with an electronic key-fob.

Extra CCTV cameras were installed and it was claimed that on one day in January, 2019, Mr Andrew was seen smoking on four occasions.

The image was blurred but the person filmed was wearing red overalls and Mr Andrew was one of only two employees to do so.

The company accepted that the risk of contamination was negligible but Mr Andrew who had worked there for 15 years, was suspended.

He denied being the person shown in the footage but was sacked by operations director Steve Prosser for gross misconduct. His appeal was later turned down.

In his judgment Employment Judge Steven Williams said there was uncertainty in the company’s handbook over whether smoking in prohibited areas would amount to misconduct or gross misconduct.

“It is, of course, entirely proper and reasonable for any employer, particularly one engaged in food production, to impose strict rules limiting smoking in particular areas,” he said.

“But it is equally reasonable, and given the potentially draconian consequences of non-compliance by an employee, necessary for those rules to be clearly set out by signage, in the handbook or by other clear and effective means, so that someone who smokes in a strictly no-smoking area knows the risk he takes.”

The judge said he was sure that Mr Andrew would have know that it was a no-smoking workplace but might not have known that smoking in the tank farm would have been considered as gross misconduct and therefore led to summary dismissal.

The amount of compensation due to Mr Andrew will be settled at another hearing.