A veteran Isle of Wight plumber has been awarded £25,000 after bosses dubbed him 'Half-dead Dave' because of his age.

David Robson, who was 69 at the time, was regularly called 'Half-dead' by colleagues working on site and the 'derogatory' nickname was then used by his bosses too, an employment tribunal heard.

They claimed it was simply 'banter' but the tribunal heard it left Mr Robson feeling 'saddened and embarrassed'.

He later lost his job when the company selected him for redundancy following a points-scoring system which rated him as lower than other staff.

However, the tribunal ruled the system was unfair and there was 'no justification' for the low scores awarded to Mr Robson, now 71.

It also said his 'Half-dead' nickname proved that his status as the oldest employee at the firm had influenced their decision to sack him.

Bosses argued the nickname was used years before his sacking — and said they more often referred to him as 'Disco Dave' instead.

But the tribunal ruled Mr Robson had been both discriminated against due to his age and unfairly sacked, and awarded him £25,000 in compensation - £7,000 of which was awarded purely for the 'name-calling'.

The tribunal heard he first qualified as a plumber 55 years ago, and had worked for Clarke’s Mechanical as a 'plumber/pipefitter' for eight years before being dismissed.

Mr Robson was the oldest skilled worker out of some 17 gas engineers/plumbers at the firm in Cowes.

In January 2020, he was told he was to be made redundant due to a 'downturn in workload'. He was the first worker of three to be dismissed, and was awarded £6,300 in redundancy pay.

Mr Robson appealed the decision, asking his company to explain the selection process and questioning whether his age had been a factor.

The scoring system supposedly used to select redundancy candidates was later sent to Mr Robson, which he complained had been 'fabricated'.

He received a score of 28, which was low given his experience and expertise. His score for 'Performance' was the lowest other than that of a junior trainee.

During one incident in 2015, his supervisor Lee Pitman admitted using the nickname when telling another worker, Tom Fox, to take equipment to Mr Robson.

Mr Pitman told the tribunal: "I think I [gave] Tom something to give to him and I said, 'Give that to Dave'.

"I think Tom hadn’t worked with Dave and he said 'Who’s Dave?', and I said Half-dead Dave because that is what I thought they all called him on site."

The tribunal heard Mr Fox then handed Mr Robson the plumbing fittings saying, 'Here you are, Half-dead'.

Mr Robson asked who had called him that and was told it was Mr Pitman - who insisted there was 'no malice' in his using the nickname and told the tribunal 'it was just banter'.

But Mr Robson told the tribunal: "It was saddening. To me, the most saddening thing was that the term originated from a member of the management. It came from him [Mr Pitman].

"I also had a nickname of Disco Dave but he didn’t use that. When we [came] to the end of all this and my daughter sat me down and said, 'can we go through everything', she was upset... You would be.

"To the end of my employment I was regularly referred to as Half-dead Dave. Lee Pitman called me that - he thought it was rather amusing.

"Half-dead, what, because I am old? It wasn’t easy to sit and explain to my family.

"I didn't ask colleagues (to stop using the name). I just thought, 'Only a few years left at work, let’s just put up with it'. I didn’t want the distress of it all."

Mr Robson took Clarke's to an employment tribunal in Bristol, complaining he had been unfairly dismissed and discriminated against on grounds of age.

Employment judge Martha Felicity Street ruled he had been discriminated against because of his age 'plain and simple'.

She said: "The nickname caused detriment. Mr Robson put up with it, but he did not like it, he was uncomfortable and saddened and embarrassed.

"In respect of the name-calling, Half-Dead Dave, the majority of the tribunal award a further £7,000.

"That reflects the long-standing use of the name and its frankly derogatory reference to his age.

"Mr Robson did not talk up his distress, but it was plain that he was distressed and embarrassed, distressed too when he was compelled to tell his family; it became the more painful on becoming known.

"It affected his confidence, it made him the more anxious for his job, in an environment where that conduct went without comment. He felt dealt with unfairly and felt unable to address it.

"This was discrimination on the grounds of age, plain and simple. Discrimination of any form is not just banter. That is accepted across society at large."

Mr Robson won both his claims and was awarded £24,926.14 in compensation - including £7,000 due to hurt caused by his given nickname.

Adrian Baker, regional organiser of the GMB trade union which supported Mr Robson's case, said: "UK Employment law is there for us all to respect and IW employers are no exception.

“GMB continually sees members across the Isle of Wight coming to us for support on a range of matters.

"However, it would sometimes appear that there is a greater prevalence on the Island than elsewhere for employers, who simply wish to ignore UK employment law and the good advice given by GMB, to instead replace this with some form of local approach."