Mr R Bedford-Smith v SER Staffing Ltd — 2023

Mr Bedford-Smith worked for SER Staffing Ltd from January 2013 and was a team manager on a salary of £30,000 with the potential for individual and team commission. After the Covid-19 downturn, his team was reduced and, when he returned from furlough in September 2020, he had no staff to manage. The tribunal found that the respondent had reasonable and proper cause to allocate the team to Daniel Walton while Mr Bedford-Smith was furloughed, but that the continued removal of his managerial responsibilities, and the later requirement that he work only as a recruiter without a restored management role, amounted to a reduction in status and was capable of breaching the implied term of mutual trust and confidence.

The tribunal also found that the grievance and grievance appeal outcomes contributed to that breach. Peninsula consultants investigated the grievance and appeal. The tribunal held that the appeal dismissal on 12 April 2021 did not take proper account of the practical reality that Mr Bedford-Smith was only carrying out the consultancy element of his role, with no fixed timetable for restoring managerial duties. It further held that the 6 August 2021 instruction requiring him to return to work in the downgraded role continued the earlier breach.

On the 4 May 2021 return-to-work meeting, the tribunal accepted that Mr Bedford-Smith swore, but it was not satisfied that he told Gary Bentley to 'fuck off' or that he was genuinely threatening physical aggression. It held that the respondent did not have reasonable and proper cause for starting disciplinary proceedings and treating the conduct as misconduct, and that the resulting first and final written warning was capable of contributing to the cumulative breach. Mr Bedford-Smith resigned on 17 August 2021; the tribunal found he resigned because of the breach, had not affirmed the contract, and that the complaint of constructive unfair dismissal succeeded. It rejected a separate express contractual breach argument, finding he remained employed as a manager on the same pay and conditions. This liability judgment does not record any remedy award.