Dounreay worker loses his job after quiche dispute
A COMPLAINT about a filling in a quiche ended with a draughtsman at Dounreay being escorted off the site on Friday.
Stephen Bowen-Jones has since had his contract terminated, though site licence company DSRL have told him it is as a result of a lack of work for him.
The 59-year-old draughtsman has been left bitter after an incident with a member of the site canteen staff which he said led to him being reported for abusive behaviour. He was unhappy that a quiche he bought from the canteen had chicken in it when that had not been made clear on the packaging.
Mr Bowen-Jones, who has worked at the site for more than two years, insists he was polite when he raised the grievance about the food which he had brought back to eat at his desk.
He is also unhappy he was not made aware that management was investigating the incident for more than a month before he was asked to a meeting with DSRL’s deputy director of fuels Alex Potts last Thursday.

“He said they had a problem and said there was some issue with the canteen,” said Mr Bowen-Jones.
“He said to me: ‘I’m not having people shouting down people'.
“I said I didn’t but I wasn’t really given an opportunity to defend myself.”
The following day, he said he was told his contract was being terminated and he was escorted off the site.
Mr Bowen-Jones believes he has been given short shrift by the company.
“They said I was abusive, but I have witnesses in an open plan area who heard what was said to support my claim that I wasn’t.
“I hadn’t been consulted about the investigation against me and haven’t had a chance to put my side of the story across.”
He believes he was right to highlight the issue with the member of the canteen staff as food needs to be properly labelled to warn people with allergies.
“I bought some quiche with salad and it had chicken in the quiche which I wasn’t aware of,” he said.
Top stories
“The food had not been labelled properly and all I did was bring it to their attention.
“I politely told them they have to label what is in the food, but was told I was being abusive.
He added: “I worked there as a contractor but that doesn’t alter the fact that I have rights.
“I tried to give them a letter explaining the situation but they wouldn’t read it. Their minds were made up.”
Mr Bowen-Jones said in his last contact with DSRL, he was told he was not being kept on because of a lack of work for him.
But he claimed only days before he had seen paperwork which was going to extend his contract by 12 months.
And he said he had two to three weeks of work on a project remaining while DSRL have been looking to recruit draughtsmen.
A DSRL spokeswoman said yesterday: “We cannot comment on personal issues affecting staff or contractors.”