Mr Martinho Da Silva v Unilever UK Limited — 2020

The tribunal recorded that the claimant had originally brought disability discrimination, race discrimination and unfair dismissal claims. The race discrimination claim had been withdrawn earlier, and by the end of the hearing the live issues were unfair dismissal, direct disability discrimination and victimisation. The tribunal also recorded that a reasonable adjustments claim was not pursued in submissions.

On unfair dismissal, the tribunal found unanimously that the claimant's email of 17 May 2018 was a clear and unambiguous resignation. It rejected the argument that the respondent had deliberately or dishonestly misconstrued the email, accepted Ms Cullen's evidence about why there was a short delay before acknowledging it, and found that the claimant's later email of 24 May 2018 did not cast doubt on the respondent's understanding. The tribunal therefore found that the claimant resigned and was not dismissed.

On disability discrimination, the tribunal considered the February 2018 performance score of 2/5 and the respondent's treatment of the resignation email. It found no credible evidence that the claimant was deliberately or dishonestly underscored because of disability, noting that he had received the same score for 2016 before he became disabled and that the respondent's explanation for the 2017 score was credible and logical. It also found that accepting the resignation email as a resignation was not less favourable treatment because of disability. On victimisation, the tribunal found the alleged detriment had not occurred and that there was no evidence the respondent's actions were in response to any protected act.