Mr Phillip Allen-Turner v Mr Lawrence Meer T/A Central Auto Repair Services — 2022

Mr Phillip Allen-Turner worked as an auto technician for Mr Lawrence Meer T/A Central Auto Repair Services. The claimant had an immune-system condition and said that, at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the respondent had failed to put proper safety measures in place. The tribunal accepted that the claimant raised Covid-19 concerns in mid-March 2020, but found that on 20 March 2020 there were no Covid-19 guidelines, acts, or regulations in force applicable to the garage that the claimant could rely on in the way he pleaded.

The tribunal found that the claimant resigned in a telephone call on the evening of 20 March 2020, saying that he was not returning to work. It rejected his case that he had left because of a reasonable belief in serious and imminent danger from the respondent's conduct. The judge placed weight on the contemporaneous messages exchanged on 21, 25 and 28 March 2020, which did not refer to being put at risk at the garage in the way later alleged, and on the claimant's evidence that he had copied the respondent's customer database before resigning. The tribunal found that conduct dishonest and concluded that the claimant's real purpose was to start or join a business and approach customers and employees.

Applying the section 100 ERA 1996 health and safety provisions and the two-stage approach in Oudahar v Esporta Group Ltd, the tribunal held that the claimant did not have a reasonable belief of serious and imminent danger of infection with Covid-19 caused by the respondent's failure to provide a safe working environment. It also found there was no fundamental breach of contract by the respondent, including no breach of the implied term of mutual trust and confidence. The automatic unfair dismissal claim, the constructive dismissal claim, and the remaining claims, including the notice pay issue, were dismissed and no award was made.