Mrs M Jalloh v Tesco Stores Ltd — 2021

The claimant was summarily dismissed after allegations concerning misuse of her Tesco Clubcard. The tribunal found that the reason for dismissal was conduct, not redundancy, and accepted that the respondent had a genuine belief, on reasonable grounds, that the claimant had committed misconduct.

The tribunal found the dismissal unfair. It held that the respondent failed to make enquiries of colleagues who were involved in the transactions, particularly the claimant's line manager, who scanned the card in the transaction relied on at appeal and received a warning. The tribunal considered that the claimant's long unblemished service, repeated apologies, expressed remorse, explanation that she misunderstood the rules, the low value involved, and the involvement of other staff were material circumstances.

The tribunal found the decision to dismiss was both procedurally and substantively outside the band of reasonable responses. It made no Polkey deduction because it could not predict that dismissal would have occurred had a fair procedure been followed, but found the claimant had contributed to her dismissal and ordered a 10% reduction to the basic and compensatory awards.