Mr A Gorry v Stena Line PTE Limited — 2019

The tribunal found that Mr Gorry was dismissed for conduct, namely assault under section 7.1 of the Merchant Navy Code of Conduct, and that the claimant had admitted a minor assault at the earlier onboard process. Captain Millar investigated the incident after the 29 March 2018 exchange with CB, viewed the CCTV with the claimant, and issued what the tribunal found to be a final written warning for a minor act of assault. The tribunal accepted that the claimant had long service, an unblemished record, and had been working a long and stressful shift, and it found that Captain Millar was best placed to assess the incident in its offshore context.

The tribunal held that the respondent unfairly reopened the matter after CB later raised a grievance alleging victimisation, bullying, harassment and assault, and after her union representative pressed for dismissal. It found that the subsequent shoreside investigation and disciplinary process did not amount to a fair or reasonable process under the Merchant Navy Code of Conduct. In particular, it found that Ailish Jamieson, Lindsey Herrington and Sarah Simpson were not independent of the earlier process, that key material including the Record of Formal Warning and relevant witness evidence was not properly taken into account, and that the claimant was not shown the CCTV again with the later investigators despite its importance to the case.

The tribunal concluded that the respondent did not have a genuine belief, based on a reasonable investigation, that the claimant had committed gross misconduct warranting summary dismissal. It found that the second set of proceedings did not fall within the Code’s framework for reopening the matter after the onboard warning, that the later decision-makers overstated the seriousness of the incident, and that the appeal did not cure the defects in the disciplinary process. On that basis the tribunal held that the dismissal was both procedurally and substantively unfair.

Although the unfair dismissal claim succeeded, the tribunal also found that Mr Gorry was culpable and blameworthy in his conduct towards CB and that it was just and equitable to reduce both the basic award and the compensatory award by 25%. Remedy was not assessed in the liability judgment and was adjourned to a later remedy hearing.