Mr N Roud v Llexeter Ltd — 2022

Mr Roud worked for Llexeter Ltd from 7 October 2015 and was summarily dismissed with effect from 9 November 2020. The tribunal recorded a 2019 disciplinary process about his attitude and later complaints in October 2020 from colleagues alleging swearing, aggression, intimidation and threatening remarks, including repeated references to "I'll break your legs". It also recorded evidence that some workplace relationships were strained and that at least one such phrase had been used jokingly in an email, but it did not accept Mr Roud's case that he had in substance been made redundant.

On unfair dismissal, the tribunal accepted that the dismissal was for conduct and that Mr Squire and Mr Xu genuinely believed the allegations. It nevertheless held that the procedure was unfair because there had been no investigatory meeting with Mr Roud and the same person handled both the investigation and the disciplinary hearing, contrary to the ACAS Code. The appeal did not cure those defects. The tribunal applied section 98(4) ERA 1996, the Burchell approach and the band of reasonable responses analysis, and found that there was a 75% chance that a fair process would still have led to dismissal.

The tribunal found that Mr Roud had contributed to his dismissal to the extent of 50%, and it reduced both the basic award and the compensatory award on that basis. It also applied a 25% uplift under section 207A TULRCA because of the unreasonable failure to comply with the ACAS Code. The unfair dismissal award was £2,668.33 in total, made up of a basic award of £2,017.50 and a compensatory award of £650.83.

The wrongful dismissal claim succeeded because the tribunal was not satisfied, on the balance of probabilities, that Mr Roud's conduct amounted to a repudiatory breach of contract. It awarded £4,303.20 in lieu of notice under the contract, with no deduction for tax. The redundancy payment claim was dismissed. The total sum ordered to be paid was £6,971.53, and the tribunal noted that Mr Roud had obtained lower-paid work with Morrisons on 23 February 2021, which limited the period for loss of earnings.