South Yorkshire Times — Saturday, 12 June 1943
A Difficult Case
Denaby Ex-Service-Man’s Predicament
When the owners of Denaby Main Colliery applied at Doncaster County Court on Wednesday for possession of one of the Company’s houses, the tenant, a miner, told Judge Hildyard that he had recently been discharged on medical grounds from the Army after three years’ service.
He was certified unfit to work down the pit, but was prepared to work on the surface. The Company, however, had no work for him on the surface.
Judge Hildyard said people who went into the Forces were entitled to be taken back, but this man had returned from the Army unfit to do the job he was doing in civil life before he joined up. The Judge added that he knew of cases where men had returned from the Army and found that their job no longer existed.
Mr. C. R. Marshall, for the Company, said: “The obligation is to reinstate the worker in his pre-war employment, and if he cannot take it up again the obligation, seemingly, is at an end.”
The case was adjourned for a month.