Mr D Brook v Next Distribution Limited — 2022

The claimant was dismissed after making a comment on the respondent's Yapster app and Facebook posts, which the respondent treated as breaches of its social media policy while he had a live final written warning for an unrelated tachograph matter. The tribunal found that conduct was the reason for dismissal and that the respondent genuinely believed the claimant had committed misconduct. It found the respondent had reasonable grounds, just, in relation to the Yapster comment, but not in relation to the Facebook posts.

The tribunal found the respondent had carried out a reasonable investigation and had otherwise acted in a procedurally fair manner. However, dismissal was not within the band of reasonable responses when the claimant's long service, lack of awareness of the social media policy, the minor nature of the Yapster misconduct, the limited internal audience, the lack of reasonable grounds regarding the Facebook posts, and the fact that the final written warning concerned wholly unrelated conduct were considered cumulatively.

No Polkey reduction was made because the dismissal was not unfair for procedural reasons and there was no basis to find that the claimant would otherwise have been fairly dismissed. The tribunal found the Yapster comment was mild blameworthy conduct contributing to dismissal and reduced both the basic and compensatory awards by 25%.