Alyn Williams to receive £60,000 for 'unfair dismissal' from The Westbury

Tanwen Dawn-Hiscox

Deputy Editor

Alyn Williams' is to receive £60,000 in compensation after his dismissal from The Westbury on the grounds of gross misconduct did not meet the necessary legal grounds.

According to the Daily Mail, a judge heard that the Michelin-starred chef had been allowed to go ahead with 61 private parties prior to the event in question, and that the grounds for his dismissal - gross misconduct - were thus unfounded.

He will receive a compensatory sum total of £57,176, approximately half of his £116,000 reported annual salary of in his role as the chef and namebearer of the restaurant at The Westbury hotel in London.

The prosecution told the judge that in July of 2019, two of chef Alyn Williams' guests (or more precisely, two of his guests' children) set up an indoor football pitch in the restaurant, and proceeded to play football, jumping on soft furnishings and disturbing the tables set for guests,

The judge heard the following: "Their play involved the following activities: jumping over the net; kicking and throwing the ball against the walls and the ceiling; fighting for the ball and chasing each other around the restaurant; diving onto the sofa-bench to catch the ball, which stood next to the tables laid for breakfast; taking a running jump onto the sofa-bench; wrestling with each other on the sofa-bench; doing a headstand on the sofa-bench.

"One of the boys took from the bar a small bottle of tabasco sauce and drank some sauce by dipping it from the bottle into his mouth.

"The other boy on 14 separate occasions took, using his hand, and ate sugar cubes from the sugar bowls on the tables laid for breakfast.

"On one of those occasions he took a sugar cube after wiping his nose and on another occasion after scratching his groin through trousers."

Despite the claims, the judge ruled that seeing as the chef had been allowed to host such events before, a pursuit for gross misconduct didn't stand up, despite the young boys' admittedly "objectionable" behaviour, which he called "disrespectful" and "silly."

Instead, the judge concluded that the order had come from the hotel owner Azad Cola or management, calling the allegations "a side show," not the basis for a gross misconduct disciplinary procedure.

The defence even told the judge that the chef was only dismissed on those grounds after the Michelin Guide had announced its accolades for 2020, out of fear that the restaurant would lose its star.

In these challenging times…

The Staff Canteen team are taking a different approach to keeping our website independent and delivering content free from commercial influence. Our Editorial team have a critical role to play in informing and supporting our audience in a balanced way. We would never put up a paywall and restrict access – The Staff Canteen is open to all and we want to keep bringing you the content you want; more from younger chefs, more on mental health, more tips and industry knowledge, more recipes and more videos. We need your support right now, more than ever, to keep The Staff Canteen active. Without your financial contributions this would not be possible.

Over the last 12 years, The Staff Canteen has built what has become the go-to platform for chefs and hospitality professionals. As members and visitors, your daily support has made The Staff Canteen what it is today. Our features and videos from the world’s biggest name chefs are something we are proud of. We have over 500,000 followers across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and other social channels, each connecting with chefs across the world. Our editorial and social media team are creating and delivering engaging content every day, to support you and the whole sector - we want to do more for you.

A single coffee is more than £2, a beer is £4.50 and a large glass of wine can be £6 or more.

Support The Staff Canteen from as little as £1 today. Thank you.