Mr E Ignatius v Openreach Ltd — 2025

The claimant was dismissed for gross misconduct after using a ladder without the Tetra safety system, including the harness. The tribunal found that the claimant had been trained on the Tetra system, knew that it was mandatory when climbing, and had admitted during the investigation, disciplinary hearing and appeal that he had breached safety requirements.

The tribunal found that the respondent genuinely believed the claimant had committed misconduct, had reasonable grounds for that belief, carried out an investigation within the band of reasonable responses, and followed a fair procedure. Although the appeal decision effectively did not uphold the allegation that the claimant ignored an instruction by re-climbing the ladder, the appeal officer upheld dismissal on the basis of the first safety breach, which the tribunal found was capable of amounting to gross misconduct.

The wrongful dismissal / notice claim was dismissed because the tribunal found the conduct amounted to a fundamental breach of contract entitling summary dismissal. The direct age and race discrimination complaints were also dismissed: the tribunal found no actual comparator, no prima facie case that a hypothetical comparator would have been treated more favourably, and accepted that dismissal was because of the respondent's view of the claimant's conduct, not age or race. For age discrimination, the tribunal also stated that, if necessary, dismissal for a serious safety breach would have been justified as a proportionate means of achieving the legitimate aim of health and safety compliance.