Mrs T Kenworthy-Dowdall v North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust — 2023

Mrs T Kenworthy-Dowdall brought a single claim of unfair dismissal against North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust. The respondent accepted that it dismissed her and relied on conduct as the potentially fair reason. The tribunal found that the dismissal followed allegations that she had used the n-word about a black colleague on two occasions, in July 2020 and December 2020, and that the claimant had repeatedly accepted during the process that use of the word at work was unacceptable.

Employment Judge McDonald found that the respondent had a genuine belief, on reasonable grounds, that the claimant had used the word twice and that the investigation and disciplinary process were within the band of reasonable responses. The judgment rejected the claimant’s criticism that the respondent should not have relied on the July 2020 incident, should have suspended her, or had acted unfairly by proceeding with the hearing while she was on sickness absence and represented by Mr Reading. The tribunal also held that the failure earlier in the investigation to name Ms Herbert as the reporting witness did not take the investigation outside the band of reasonableness.

The tribunal concluded that the dismissal was not unfair and dismissed the claim. It therefore cancelled the remedy hearing. In the alternative, if it had found the dismissal unfair, the tribunal said it would have made a 100% Polkey reduction to the compensatory award and reduced the basic award to nil because it would have found that the claimant’s conduct contributed 100% to her dismissal.