Mrs T Macdonald v B:Friend Heard: via Cloud Video Platform in the North East Region — 2024

The tribunal held that the claimant’s complaint under section 10 of the Employment Relations Act 1999 was well founded. The case arose from a meeting on 20 June 2023 at which the claimant was dismissed with immediate effect after allegations about her behaviour toward a service user had been investigated. Although the respondent said the meeting was not a disciplinary hearing, the tribunal looked at the substance of the process rather than the label used by the respondent.

The tribunal found that the meeting was a disciplinary hearing within section 13(4) because it was designed to result in dismissal, which it treated as “some other action” for the purposes of the statute. It rejected the respondent’s argument that it could avoid section 10 by deciding not to use its disciplinary procedure. The tribunal also noted that the ACAS Code describes disciplinary situations as including misconduct, and found that the respondent had effectively treated the matter as one of misconduct from the start.

On the right to accompaniment, the tribunal found that the claimant made a reasonable request. She had very short notice of the meeting, texted that her union had not yet come back to her, and made clear that she wanted union involvement before the meeting went ahead. The tribunal accepted that she could not have asked earlier because she only learned of the meeting shortly beforehand. It also found that the request was denied when Ms Bunker replied that there was no right to a representative and that the meeting would go ahead.

The tribunal therefore found a breach of section 10 and ordered compensation under section 11. It awarded the upper end of the statutory maximum, namely two weeks’ gross pay, because the respondent had ignored the claimant’s right to be accompanied and had made no attempt to follow a fair process. The parties agreed that two weeks’ gross pay came to £588.16, and that sum was ordered to be paid to the claimant.