Mr A Briggs v Royal Mail Group Limited — 2020

The claimant was dismissed for alleged conduct relating to delayed mail after a post box was found overflowing and containing items posted on earlier dates. The respondent considered that the claimant had failed to clear the box on three occasions and had used a photographed barcode to indicate that collection had been completed. The Tribunal accepted that conduct was the reason for dismissal and that the dismissing and appeal officers had a genuine belief in misconduct.

The Tribunal found the dismissal unfair because the respondent failed to retain or act on the claimant's proposed amendments to notes of important meetings, and because contemporaneous evidence including photographs and Pre-Com scan-location data was not retained or available for the disciplinary or appeal stages. Those deficiencies affected the fairness of the investigation, particularly because the respondent relied on what the claimant was recorded as having said in the early meetings.

The Tribunal nevertheless concluded that, had a fair procedure been followed, the claimant would on the balance of probabilities still have been dismissed at the same time and the respondent would have been entitled to dismiss him. It therefore reduced the compensatory award by 100% under Polkey. The Tribunal made no reduction to the basic award for conduct and proposed a basic award of £1,320.