- MR T ASHBY (TRADE UNION REPRESENTATIVE) FOR THE v Respondent — 2025

In the liability judgment, which this remedy judgment summarises, the tribunal upheld constructive unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal, discrimination arising from disability, and failure to make reasonable adjustments. It did not uphold all of the claimant’s complaints, including the earlier KS-related grievance/sanction allegations and the later secondary-employment complaints.

The upheld disability findings concerned the return-to-work process from February and March 2021. The tribunal recorded that the claimant had already indicated by November 2020 that she wanted to leave operational firefighting, and that Occupational Health advice was that a return to active duties was likely to risk relapse. It found that the respondent nevertheless required her to attend a return-to-work meeting, commenced disciplinary action after she did not attend, and upheld the sanction on appeal. The tribunal held that the respondent should have considered redeployment to Green Book roles across Gloucestershire County Council.

On injury to feelings, the tribunal accepted that much of the claimant’s distress had begun before the upheld acts, particularly because of the KS events, and that later second-job allegations also prolonged or exacerbated the impact. It therefore rejected the claimant’s top-end figure, accepted that the award should be in the middle Vento band, and fixed injury to feelings at £12,500 at the lower end of that band.

For financial loss, the tribunal accepted pre-dismissal loss of £9,588.12. It then limited post-dismissal loss to £7,440.84, finding that the claimant had failed to mitigate by limiting her applications to fire-safety roles despite the successful case that redeployment across Gloucestershire County Council should have been considered. It also awarded a £3,426 basic award, £500 for loss of statutory rights, £2,617.65 notice pay, and interest of £3,625 on injury to feelings plus £2,166.12 on financial losses, giving a stated total award of £42,853.73.