Mr A Cattermole v SPS Technologies Limited — 2024

Mr Cattermole was employed by SPS Technologies Limited as a setter and was a UNITE convenor. The dispute arose after the announcement of an extra bank holiday for the Queen’s funeral on 19 September 2022, when SPS decided it would be a normal working day. Mr Cattermole obtained a memo from AETC, another company in the same wider group, saying AETC staff could take the day as holiday or work it and take another day later in the year.

The tribunal accepted that Mr Cattermole printed and distributed about five copies of the memo on the factory floor, and found that this happened at an “appropriate time” because he had implied permission to step away briefly from work. It also found that UNITE had not instructed him to distribute the memo; the decision to do so was his alone, although Mr Purslow did not object if that was what he chose to do.

The tribunal found Mr Cattermole’s real purpose was to agitate fellow employees and pressure management to grant the Monday as a holiday, rather than to carry out an activity of UNITE. It considered that he did not use the normal union channels available to him, such as the WhatsApp group or noticeboard, did not add any union context to the memo, and did not begin a grievance or negotiation. On that basis, it held that his conduct was not an activity of an independent trade union within section 146 TULCRA 1992.

Because Mr Cattermole was not undertaking protected trade union activities, the claim failed and was dismissed. The tribunal said that the respondent’s reason for the 6-month verbal warning did not arise for decision once that conclusion had been reached.