Mr B Welham v Royal Mail Group Limited — 2024

The claimant was employed by Royal Mail Group Limited as an operational postal grade from 30 May 2002 until 5 May 2023. He was absent with an arm injury in April 2023 and had provided fit notes stating that he was not fit for work. After the respondent received a Facebook photograph of the claimant in a pub without his arm in a sling, a manager instructed Ms Heaton-Prouse to tell him to return to work the next day or his sick pay would be stopped.

The tribunal found that the respondent accused the claimant of malingering, required him to return to work or lose sick pay, and had predetermined that his sickness was not genuine without due process or contrary medical evidence. It found that the accusation went to the claimant's honesty, that the respondent had no reasonable and proper cause for its actions, and that the conduct breached the implied term of trust and confidence.

The tribunal found that the claimant resigned promptly in response to that breach, with no evidence that he resigned for another reason or had affirmed the contract. It concluded that the constructive unfair dismissal claim succeeded. The wrongful dismissal claim also succeeded because the claimant was entitled to payment in lieu of notice and the respondent had not shown a fundamental breach by the claimant. Remedy was left for a separate hearing.