Mr David Cunane v Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) — 2022

Mr David Cunane brought an unfair dismissal claim only. In the liability judgment sent on 10 May 2022, Employment Judge Dawson held that he had been unfairly dismissed by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. The tribunal recorded that the question of remedy was adjourned to 7 June 2022, so this judgment does not contain any monetary award.

RNLI accepted that it dismissed the claimant but relied on some other substantial reason, described as a breakdown of trust and confidence. The dismissal letter relied on eight matters, including team morale, management style, onboarding of a new starter, the claimant’s resignation and retraction, and his engagement with improvement measures. The tribunal held that, in substance, those matters were allegations of incapability or misconduct rather than SOSR, and that RNLI had used the label of loss of trust and confidence instead of addressing the issues as conduct or capability concerns.

In the alternative, the tribunal held that dismissal was not justified under s.98(4) ERA 1996. It found that the claimant had been described in a contemporaneous RADAR appraisal as doing the job well in December 2019, although his performance had begun to deteriorate from around September or October 2019 and there had been poor morale in the team. The tribunal said RNLI should have provided a clear statement of shortcomings, support to improve, a proper reviewed performance process, and consideration of a return to the investigator role, and it declined any Polkey reduction because it was not satisfied the outcome would necessarily have been the same.