Hotelier must pay for slap

A hotelier who slapped a woman worker when he found out that gammon steaks had been put on the menu has been ordered to pay her more than £6,500 in compensation.

Charles MacDonald, of the County hotel in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, had forbidden the steaks to be served. When he discovered that diners were being offered them, he took out his anger on 19-year-old Joanna MacLeod, who knew nothing of the instruction and had nothing to do with preparing the menu.

He was ordered to pay her £6,595 in compensation at an employment tribunal in Glasgow. It found that he assaulted MacLeod, a general assistant, in March last year.

At a meeting the next day, MacDonald, who has been in the hotel business for 40 years, denied hitting the teenager. Rather than apologise, he suspended her. MacLeod, who had worked at the hotel for three years, quit her job two days later.