Mr Alastair Hodge of Counsel For v Mr James Gunnion – Solicitor — 2021

Ben Prigmore worked for Openreach as a C3 Senior Engineer under a home park scheme and later worked on the Ethernet Tail Reduction Programme. The tribunal found that management had told the team that the Ethernet project ended on 20 December 2019 and that no work should be carried over after that date. Against that background, the claimant submitted 8 hours of overtime for 22 December 2019, which led to an investigation into alleged falsification of timesheets.

On the unfair dismissal claim, the tribunal held that the reason for dismissal was conduct within section 98(2)(b) of the Employment Rights Act 1996. Applying the Burchell test, and referring to W. Weddel & Co. Ltd. v Tepper, it found that Mr Book had an honest belief that gross misconduct had occurred, that the investigation was reasonable, and that dismissal was within the range of reasonable responses. The tribunal accepted that the claimant was given opportunities to justify the overtime claim, but found his explanations vague and unsupported by the material he produced. The appeal was rejected by Mr Lynch.

On the wrongful dismissal claim, the tribunal found on the balance of probabilities that the claimant had not worked the 8 overtime hours claimed for Sunday 22 December 2019. It relied on the project end-date instructions, the contemporaneous email trail, the absence of supporting evidence for system access and other tasks, and the inconsistency between the claimed overtime and the records reviewed by Mr Book. In the alternative, the tribunal said any procedural unfairness would have attracted a Polkey reduction, and it also stated that the claimant would have been contributorily at fault to the extent of 100%. Both claims were dismissed and no monetary award was made.