Ms D Grisina v Torque Retail Services Ltd — 2021

Ms Grisina brought an unfair dismissal claim after being summarily dismissed by Torque Retail Services Limited on 1 May 2020. The tribunal found that the reason for dismissal was conduct, not redundancy. It rejected the claimant's case that the dismissal was really because the Trespass contract had been lost, finding no evidence that the Trespass team had been made redundant and accepting the respondent's evidence that staff were redeployed elsewhere in the business.

The tribunal found that the respondent carried out a reasonable investigation. It considered the respondent's disciplinary policy, the ACAS Code of Practice, the CCTV footage, and the sequence of investigation, disciplinary and appeal meetings. The claimant was suspended, invited to meetings, given documents including the policy, the note of the investigation meeting, the anonymous email and CCTV footage, and was given opportunities to answer the allegations. The tribunal accepted the respondent's reliance on the CCTV and the evidence from the different managers involved in the process.

On the merits, the tribunal accepted that the respondent had reasonable grounds to believe that the claimant had breached COVID social distancing guidance, had used or been present with a mobile phone on the factory floor contrary to the respondent's policy and the email sent on 26 February 2020, and had been complicit in conduct bringing the company into disrepute and misusing the company name. It found the dismissal to be within the range of reasonable responses, taking into account the claimant's role as a team leader and company ambassador and the respondent's loss of trust and confidence.

The tribunal also rejected the claimant's criticisms of the appeal process. It found that Steven Foster did not prejudge the appeal, took the claimant back through the CCTV footage, and gave her a further opportunity to respond before upholding the dismissal. The unfair dismissal claim was therefore dismissed in full, and no monetary award was made.