In person For the v Respondent — 2021

Mr Behzad Bahmanzad was summarily dismissed on 21 October 2019 after an altercation with Mr Mark Hart on 3 October 2019. The tribunal found that he followed Mr Hart into the warehouse, shouted and swore, pushed him, and then invited him to "sort it out outside". It accepted the respondent's evidence from the CCTV footage, the contemporaneous witness statements, and the claimant's own admissions that he had been angry and could have handled the incident differently.

The claimant also alleged that he had been subjected to racist and religiously offensive comments during his employment. The tribunal considered four specific incidents said to have occurred between May 2017 and July 2019, including allegations involving comments after the Manchester Arena bombing, the London Bridge attack, an MMA fight involving Khabib Nurmagomedov, and comments in July 2019 about "Allah" and killing people. It rejected each allegation on the evidence, found that no facts were established from which discrimination or harassment could be inferred, and held that the discrimination and harassment complaints were out of time in any event because the last relied-on incident was 11 July 2019 and proceedings were not presented until 23 January 2020.

On unfair dismissal, the tribunal held that conduct was a potentially fair reason under section 98(2)(b) ERA 1996 and that Lidl genuinely and reasonably believed Mr Bahmanzad had committed gross misconduct. Although it noted concerns about handwritten notes, anonymised witness statements, and the claimant not seeing the CCTV before the disciplinary hearing, it found that the investigation and the appeal rehearing were sufficient and that dismissal fell within the band of reasonable responses. All claims were dismissed and no award was made.