1. Raffaele Nigro 2. Jarek Bak 3. Chris Schneider 4. Heinrich Grethe v Knightsbridge Residents Management Company Limited — 2022

These were four unfair dismissal claims by Raffaele Nigro, Jarek Bak, Chris Schneider and Heinrich Grethe arising from the same WhatsApp group messages sent in July 2020. The tribunal held that the reason for dismissal was conduct, as stated in the dismissal letters, rather than simply the managers' upset at the comments and emojis, and it rejected any alternative reliance on some other substantial reason. It found the respondent genuinely believed each claimant had misconducted himself, but that belief was not supported by reasonable grounds because the email/internet and social media policies did not clearly cover private WhatsApp exchanges in the way the respondent contended.

The tribunal also held that the investigation was not reasonable. It said a reasonable investigation would have identified exactly which policy provisions applied, how they were said to be breached and why each claimant's explanations were rejected. It was not necessary for the investigating officer, Jo Meredith, to attend the disciplinary hearings, but the appeal did not cure the defects identified in the earlier process. The appeal reasoning continued to treat WhatsApp as social media and relied on an overly broad reading of the emoji and reporting obligations; the tribunal also noted that Chris Barrass, whose conduct was central to the dispute, had a significant role in the appeal outcome.

Applying s.98 ERA 1996 and the Burchell framework, the tribunal concluded that dismissal fell outside the band of reasonable responses and that all four claimants had been unfairly dismissed. It refused an ACAS uplift, but made a 10% reduction for Heinrich Grethe because he unreasonably failed to appeal. It rejected any reduction for Raffaele Nigro's limited participation in the appeal, made no Polkey reduction, and recorded that this liability judgment did not set out any monetary award.