Mr D P Kilburn v Drivers Vehicles Standards Agency (Office of the Traffic Commissioner) — 2021

Mr D P Kilburn began work for the respondent on 9 March 2015 as a Team Leader. He raised a grievance in March 2017 about bullying and harassment, management conduct, staff shortages and workload. The tribunal found that Stephen Moore dealt with the first grievance through an informal route, but there was a significant delay in the outcome, and the appeal also went beyond the five-working-day target in the grievance policy. The tribunal held that this delay was a breach of policy and likely damaged the relationship, but it was not a fundamental breach of contract.

After the claimant suffered a heart attack in September 2017, Occupational Health recommended a stress risk assessment. A second grievance was raised in March 2018. The tribunal found that the respondent followed its procedure on that grievance, albeit with some delay, and that Colin Maddock and Nick Longhurst were entitled to reach the outcomes they did. It accepted that some complaints were upheld, including that the claimant had not had a proper stress risk assessment and that there had been poor communication, but it rejected the suggestion that the claimant was being managed out of the organisation. It also found that leaving him at Chadderton while the grievance and appeal were dealt with was acceptable.

The tribunal placed particular weight on the period leading to the claimant's resignation. It found that the disputed meeting with Eleanor McKenzie on 22 November 2018 did not involve an improper manner of conduct or a deliberate failure to complete the stress risk assessment. The claimant had already said on several occasions that he was going to leave, had obtained a First Bus job offer, and resigned only after receiving the appeal outcome on 17 December 2018. On that basis, the tribunal held that the matters complained of were not a fundamental breach individually or cumulatively, that the claimant had not resigned in response to a repudiatory breach, and that the claim for constructive unfair dismissal failed.

Because there was no dismissal established, the redundancy payment claim also failed. The tribunal therefore dismissed both complaints and made no award.