Mr A Royston v Greenwood Engineering Services Limited — 2021

Mr A Royston worked for Greenwood Engineering Services Limited from October 2009 until his dismissal with one week’s notice on 13 October 2020. The tribunal found that the principal reason for dismissal was persistent short-term absenteeism. It accepted that the claimant’s absences were frequent in 2019 and 2020, that the respondent was a small family engineering business, and that the absenteeism had a significant effect on production and planning in that business.

The tribunal preferred the evidence of Mr Robert Green over the claimant’s account on the warnings issue. It found that the claimant had been warned formally on at least five occasions between September 2019 and September 2020, that he was repeatedly asked to provide self-certification, and that he refused to do so. The tribunal rejected the allegation that signatures on the warning documents had been forged or fabricated.

On that basis, the tribunal held that absenteeism was a potentially fair reason for dismissal and that the decision to dismiss was substantively within the range of reasonable responses. However, it found the dismissal procedurally unfair because after the claimant’s absence on 2 October 2020 the respondent moved straight to dismissal on 5 October 2020 without any final meeting or hearing and without offering any appeal route. The tribunal found that the claimant should have been given a final opportunity to make representations and that the ACAS factors were not considered at that stage.

The tribunal applied a 100% Polkey reduction to the compensatory award, finding that the claimant would still have been dismissed even if a fair procedure had been followed. It also found contributory conduct because the claimant had refused to provide self-certification and had not engaged properly with the respondent’s attendance process. The basic award was reduced by 75%, producing a payable basic award of £935. The claimant’s breach of contract / notice pay complaint had been withdrawn and therefore did not proceed.