Mr P Panayi v NHS Property Services Limited — 2021

The claimant transferred to the respondent under TUPE and later resigned with immediate effect. He relied on 18 matters as cumulatively amounting to a repudiatory breach of the implied term of mutual trust and confidence, including issues about a vehicle, workplace interactions, pay and overtime, holiday pay, the 25 July 2019 carbon monoxide incident and RIDDOR report, return-to-work arrangements, replacement work trousers, job estimates, and call-out fees.

The tribunal found there was no last straw causing the resignation. It found that after returning from annual leave the claimant had decided to leave and was seeking other employment, and that the October payslip was not the cause of his resignation. The tribunal also found, in the alternative, that the allegations did not individually or cumulatively meet the objective test for a repudiatory breach of the implied term of trust and confidence.

On the pay issues, the tribunal found that call-out and overtime payment problems were not deliberate or unexplained, that the respondent accepted the claimant's contractual rates and was trying to address payroll limitations, and that payments were made eventually. It found that no quarterly balancing payment was due, holiday pay had not been paid only at basic rate, and the claimant was not contractually entitled to an automatic 2% annual pay rise.

On the 25 July 2019 incident and reporting, the tribunal accepted that the claimant was distressed and had suffered carbon monoxide poisoning, but found the respondent did not knowingly or recklessly send him into a hazardous area, did not seek to hide the RIDDOR report, and did not use the asthma reference as part of a cover-up. It also found that the issues with colleagues and managers, including Mr Hewitson, Ms Jackson and Mr Wilson, did not amount to conduct objectively likely to destroy or seriously damage trust and confidence. The unfair dismissal claim was therefore dismissed.