Sir, I'm happy to reassure your correspondent Peter Lewis (Letters, April 14) that we take all complaints seriously. In fact we've checked through our files and can't find any correspondence between him and the Oxford Bus Company over the last two years.
He claims we don't investigate complaints properly and don't take appropriate action. Nothing could be further from the truth.
We always encourage people to make comments about our services, and each of these comments is reviewed. We are constantly working to improve our service and we learn so much from our passengers' comments. We look at each and every complaint and, if we feel our employee has not performed properly, then we will take appropriate action.
There can be a whole range of outcomes, based on an employee's previous record, and the nature of the offence. To pick an extreme example, if we find a driver has used a mobile phone whilst driving, the individual will face summary dismissal. We have done just that in the past.
It wouldn't be right to publicise the outcome of a disciplinary hearing. It's not the way a good employer should behave and could jeopardise our case if we were to be taken to an Employment Tribunal.
Judging from his letter I can't believe Mr Lewis would like to see someone who has been dismissed being later reinstated by a tribunal because we'd 'gone public'.
I hope we've reassured Mr Lewis we take these issues seriously, and that his direct questions have been answered just as directly.
Louisa Weeks, Operations director, Oxford Bus Company
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