APCOA Parking has been forced to remind motorists in Salford that they do not operate with targets on Penalty Charge Notice issues following accusations made at a recent tribunal hearing.
In a Manchester hearing last March ex-Parking Attendant Thomas Bennett, 46, claimed that he was the victim of bullying in the workplace due to the low levels of PCNs he was issuing on his Bolton area. The tribunal board heard Bennett's lawyers state that his client was issuing an average of 5 tickets per day and was told that this needed to increase to 10 to reach targets set down by APCOA. Despite referring the matter to the company's head office Bennett claimed his concerns were ignored.
In February he was disciplined and given a written warning for his conduct, a decision he appealed and failed to overturn and was subsequently suspended. It was during this suspension period that Bennett ultimately resigned from the £12,000 a year job.
Responding to the accusation that targets are enforced on their PAs routes, an APCOA release explains: 'The average numbers of parking tickets issued in every street within an APCOA contract over a period of time, are used as a benchmark by which the performance of individual Parking Attendant who patrol those streets may be judged fairly and objectively.'
The Tribunal Chairman Carol Porter awarded Bennett £1,600 on the basis that the failure to make further investigations into his complaint made the disciplinary process unfair.
