Mrs S Loofe v Tamicare Ltd — 2020

Mrs S Loofe was employed by Tamicare Ltd as Director of Administration and HR Manager and was dismissed on 29 November 2018. The respondent alleged gross misconduct, including falsification of holiday forms, incorrect recording of Friday leave, failure to deduct time taken to care for her father, private work during working hours, and abuse of position. The claimant said the real reason was redundancy and that the disciplinary process was a sham.

The tribunal found that after Mr Shtrosberg joined the business in 2016 the claimant's role had been reduced to an administrative and HR function, and that she had told the respondent she had spare time and might do personal work when there was nothing else to do. It found that the holiday-request process was verbal and that Mr Shtrosberg only looked at the dates on the forms, not the tally. The tribunal also accepted that the claimant had authority for the leave she took to care for her father, that one day had not been deducted by oversight, and that the Friday half-day issue arose from her misunderstanding of pro rata hours.

Applying the Burchell approach and section 98(4) ERA 1996, the tribunal held that there was no reasonable investigation. Neither Mr Shtrosberg nor Mr McCabe checked the holiday forms or Outlook calendar, no comparison of forms was carried out, the Plant Manager was not asked whether he had advised the claimant about Friday leave, and Mrs Giloh was not asked about earlier working practices. The tribunal said the respondent simply rubber-stamped the recommendations it was given, did not take account of the claimant's previous record or lack of training, and did not have a genuine belief on reasonable grounds that she had committed misconduct. The dismissal was therefore unfair.

The tribunal also noted that the appeal did not cure the defects in the original process, and that the respondent remained unpersuaded by the claimant's explanations. Both the unfair dismissal and wrongful dismissal claims were successful, but the text provided does not set out any monetary award.