Miss R Mansaray v Mitie Limited — 2021

The Tribunal found that the reason for dismissal was misconduct: the claimant had taken a half-used tin of contractors' paint from site without authorisation from the relevant manager. The respondent had reasonable grounds to believe she had taken the paint without asking the Facilities Manager, and there were reasonable grounds for parts of the factual conclusion about the paint, including that she had not returned it when an issue arose.

The dismissal was unfair because the decision was influenced by an unsubstantiated belief that the claimant had taken other unknown items, and because of procedural problems in the investigation and disciplinary process. These included the decision-maker's comments at the start of the disciplinary hearing, the withholding during the disciplinary process of the onsite engineer's fuller account which partly supported the claimant, the failure to follow up aspects of the claimant's account with that engineer, and the failure to document conversations with other staff.

The Tribunal considered dismissal for the established conduct harsh but not outside the range of reasonable responses as a penalty, given the importance of trust in the claimant's role. It found a 50% chance that the claimant would have been fairly dismissed in any event after a fair procedure, and also found 50% contributory conduct because she took the item without authority and did not return it once there was an issue. No ACAS Code adjustment was made.