Mr S Beattie v Limec Logistics — 2020

Mr S Beattie, an HGV driver employed by Limec Logistics from May 2017, was dismissed by letter dated 24 January 2020 after a telephone exchange on 23 January 2020 about a refused load. The tribunal found that the dismissal reason was misconduct, namely foul and abusive language to the managing director, but it rejected the respondent's position that summary dismissal was justified on the facts. It also found that there had been no investigatory meeting, no disciplinary hearing, and no appeal was offered in the dismissal letter.

Applying s.98 ERA 1996, Burchell, the band of reasonable responses, and Polkey, the tribunal held that the respondent had not shown reasonable grounds based on a reasonable investigation and that dismissal was outside the range of reasonable responses. It preferred the claimant's evidence about the language used, found the conduct was not gross misconduct, and accepted that the claimant's own behaviour and failure to apologise contributed to the dismissal. It assessed contribution at 60%, applied a 20% Polkey reduction to reflect the chance of fair dismissal anyway, and added a 15% uplift because the respondent did not follow the ACAS Code.

On remedy, the tribunal awarded £452.42 for one week's lying-on wages and £904.84 for two weeks' notice pay. For unfair dismissal it calculated a basic award of £630 and a compensatory award of £397.55, which together made £1,027.55 for that claim; across all monetary orders the total came to £2,384.81. It dismissed the complaint about failure to provide a written statement of particulars of employment because it found that a statement of terms and conditions had been issued in August 2019.