In person For the v Respondent — 2017

Mr L McDonnell was employed by the City of London Corporation as a senior surveyor from August 2005 until 11 May 2016. The hearing ran from 30 January 2017 to 6 February 2017 before Employment Judge Hodgson. The tribunal recorded that the claimant was dismissed after disciplinary proceedings concerning the Tudor Market event, the Barnett Waddingham virtual golf event, the CSFI pest control issue, and a broader breakdown of trust and confidence.

On ordinary unfair dismissal, the tribunal accepted that the respondent believed there had been misconduct, but held that the dismissal was unfair because the allegations were not set out with sufficient clarity, the investigation did not identify the relevant procedures or factual basis properly, and material matters were not adequately put to the claimant. The tribunal applied the Burchell approach, s.98(4) ERA 1996, Iceland Frozen Foods v Jones, Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd v Hitt, and Kuzel v Roche Products Limited. It also found that the disciplinary process did not comply with the ACAS Code, including paragraphs 5 and 9.

On automatic unfair dismissal, the tribunal held that the claimant had made protected disclosures in 2015 about Mr Chapman, Mr Gill and Mr Nelson, including concerns about political interference and commercial handling of market events. It found that at least some of the disclosures were made in the public interest and tended to show failures of duty. The tribunal concluded that Mr Bennett treated those disclosures, and the claimant's repetition of them during the disciplinary process, as the reason for dismissal, so the principal reason for dismissal was the making of protected disclosures within section 103A ERA 1996. No remedy figure is recorded in the supplied judgment text.