In person For the v Mr R Manning (solicitor) — 2020

The tribunal found that Mrs Bedford was dismissed on 10 June 2019 after a heated telephone call with Mr Sweeting arising from the day's events at the yard. It accepted that her swearing and putting the phone down amounted to misconduct, but concluded that the respondent did not act reasonably in treating that as a sufficient reason to dismiss her because it carried out no investigation, no disciplinary hearing, no written outcome and no appeal. The tribunal rejected evidence of any prior disciplinary warnings and held that there was no chance she would have been fairly dismissed in any event.

On remedy-related findings, the tribunal held that Mrs Bedford had contributed to her dismissal by her own culpable conduct during the call, when she raised her voice, swore several times and told Mr Sweeting to 'fuck off'. It therefore decided that both her compensatory award and basic award would be reduced by 50%, and that the respondent's wholesale failure to follow the ACAS Code justified a 25% uplift on the compensatory award. Those percentages were recorded, but the liability judgment did not quantify the unfair dismissal award itself.

The tribunal also upheld Mrs Bedford's breach of contract notice-pay claim. It found that her conduct did not undermine trust and confidence to the point that summary dismissal without notice was justified, so she was entitled to 8 weeks' notice. It further held that no ACAS uplift should be applied to the notice-pay damages. Her accrued holiday pay claim failed because the tribunal found the payment made on 21 June 2019 covered her outstanding pay and accrued but untaken holiday.

The separate complaint under s.93 Employment Rights Act 1996 for written reasons for dismissal was dismissed. The tribunal found that the letters dated 27 June 2019 and 2 July 2019 did not amount to a request for written reasons for dismissal, so the statutory duty to provide such reasons was not engaged.