Adale Harrison v St. Budeaux Community Bar CIC — 2025

Adale Harrison was employed by St. Budeaux Community Bar CIC as bar manager. The tribunal dealt with a conduct dismissal arising from an incident on 24 July involving Helen Lacock and a later conversation on 4 August about stocking Carlsberg cans. The respondent investigated, took legal advice, and on 11 September 2023 summarily dismissed the claimant after a disciplinary hearing held on 8 September 2023. The tribunal found that the dismissal was for conduct, that the respondent genuinely believed the claimant was culpable, and that it had reasonable grounds for that belief on the material before it.

The tribunal accepted that the respondent had spoken to several witnesses and that the claimant was told the allegations before the disciplinary hearing, but it was concerned by the absence of written interview notes, the failure to interview Helen Lacock and the claimant's partner Mr Smart, and the fact that no written records of the weekend enquiries were provided to the claimant. It also found that fresh material obtained after the disciplinary meeting must have influenced the decision, but the claimant was not given a proper chance to respond to it. Ms Thompson's involvement in the dismissal decision was also held to be inappropriate because she was the respondent's only witness on one of the allegations.

Applying section 98 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and the Burchell approach, the tribunal held that the decision to dismiss itself was within the range of reasonable responses on the material known to the respondent, but the procedure as a whole was not. The tribunal therefore found the dismissal unfair. On Polkey, it concluded that if the procedural defects had not occurred the claimant would still have been fairly dismissed about two weeks later. The tribunal did not make any deduction for contributory fault because it had not been shown on the balance of probabilities that the claimant committed the acts said to justify dismissal.