Mr R Kawiliza v Lifeways Group and 2 others — 2021

The tribunal found that the third respondent, Living Ambitions Limited, was the claimant's employer and dismissed the claims against the first and second respondents. It accepted that the claimant had worked as a support worker until his dismissal on 12 March 2019 for gross misconduct arising from allegations that he smoked inside the Trafford Road house and left service users unsupported when he went to a nearby off licence.

On the unfair dismissal claim, the tribunal held that the reason for dismissal was conduct and that conduct was a potentially fair reason under the Employment Rights Act 1996. It found the investigation and disciplinary process to be reasonable: the claimant was interviewed, suspension was treated as a safeguarding step, the two allegations were heard together, he attended the disciplinary hearing with a representative, and he was given an appeal. The tribunal accepted the dismissing officer's evidence that the more serious matter was leaving vulnerable adults alone and concluded that dismissal was within the range of reasonable responses.

The direct age discrimination claim was dismissed. The tribunal considered the alleged treatment relied on by the claimant, including the mobile phone/photo incident, refusal of NVQ3 training, the dismissal itself, the reference, alleged long hours, alleged threats, alleged failure to provide supervision notes, and the alleged grievance issue. It found no persuasive evidence that these matters were because of age, that several incidents were not proved as alleged, and that the claimant did not identify evidence of less favourable treatment by relevant comparators. The harassment claim by reason of age also failed for the same reason: the tribunal found the conduct either did not occur as alleged or was not age-related, and in any event did not amount to unwanted conduct with the necessary effect.

The financial claims succeeded. The tribunal accepted that the respondent owed the claimant £86.82 for bank-holiday underpayments and £318.91 for unpaid annual leave entitlement, producing a total award of £405.73. There is an internal inconsistency in the judgment text as to which of those two sums is associated with wages and which with annual leave in the opening summary, but the reasons and concluding section assign £86.82 to unlawful deductions and £318.91 to unpaid annual leave.