Mr Oreschnick v W M Morrison Supermarkets Limited — 2023

The Claimant, a store manager of approximately eight years' service with an unblemished disciplinary record, was summarily dismissed in September 2022 following a disciplinary process concerning health and safety matters at the Ty Glas store in Cardiff, including the conduct of a colleague (NM) who had driven a forklift truck without holding the Respondent's FLT licence, and issues relating to a scissor lift. The Employment Judge accepted that both the dismissing officer (Ms Denton) and the appeal officer (Mr McMullen) genuinely believed the Claimant had committed misconduct, but found they had conflated CCTV footage of reckless FLT driving with what the Claimant had actually witnessed, and had misunderstood the condition of the scissor lift relative to the Allianz engineering reports.

The Judge held that the appeal officer's reliance on NM's changed account, given in circumstances where NM was seeking to save his own job and without further investigation or notice to the Claimant, fell outside the range of reasonable grounds and the range of reasonable investigations. The decision makers' conclusions about the scissor lift and the Claimant's alleged failure to escalate concerns were also not based on reasonable grounds, in part because they did not have adequate regard to the Allianz reports and did not interview the regional maintenance manager. The appeal was procedurally unfair, and dismissal was in any event beyond the range of reasonable responses given the Claimant's clean record and the exceptional personal circumstances he was experiencing in spring and summer 2022.

On the notice pay claim, the Judge found the Claimant had not committed any breach of his employment contract, let alone a repudiatory breach amounting to gross misconduct, and so the Respondent had wrongfully dismissed him by dismissing without notice. The reasons document addresses liability only and does not set out a remedy.