Top north golf club had to cut wages, tribunal told

A world-class Highland golf club which attracts a rich and famous clientele from all over claimed yesterday that it had to cut the wages and hours of 10 greenkeepers during the winter because of financial difficulties.

The 133-year-old Royal Dornoch Golf Club was trying to avoid the need to make redundancies to counter a drop in income over the winter months, the club’s financial convener, Michael Thomas, told an Inverness employment tribunal yesterday.

But the group of greenkeepers, who help keep the club ranked in the world top 15 each year, are each pursuing a legal case against the company, accusing them of making unlawful deductions from their wages, and evidence in one of the cases was heard yesterday.

Assistant greenkeeper George Clubb, 49, said that he had worked at Royal Dornoch since 1998, earning about £19,000 per annum and working just over 37 hours a week.

Mr Clubb, of 66 Elizabeth Crescent, Dornoch, said: “The head greenkeeper took us into the office and told us that our hours were being cut from 37.5 to 30 hours a week.”

Mr Clubb, who is still employed at Royal Dornoch, said that the changes were implemented a week later and that there was no consultation by managers with the greenkeepers.

He estimated that he lost more than £600 between November and January.

The club’s financial convener, Michael Thomas, told the tribunal: “When I became financial convener I had a close look at the accounts and projections and the history.

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