Ms D Cordon v Isa Lea Limited Heard vis Cloud Video Platform — 2021

Ms Cordon brought claims for constructive unfair dismissal, wrongful dismissal and unpaid wages. The tribunal found that on 4 October 2019 Mr Kerry swore at her during an IT training session, including saying "fuck off", after she questioned the timing of the training. It accepted that this was wrong, but it also found that the respondent investigated her grievance, held a meeting on 17 October 2019, and by 4 November 2019 had upheld the grievance and issued a written apology from Mr Kerry, which the tribunal accepted was genuine.

The tribunal rejected the allegation that Ms Cordon was given a final written warning without a hearing. It found that the correspondence and meeting notes showed only that disciplinary action was being considered and then not pursued, and that by 20 January 2020 the respondent was ready to hear an appeal. It held that the subsequent delay was caused by the claimant's side, because her solicitors did not provide dates for the hearing and instead asked questions the tribunal regarded as unnecessary. It also rejected the workload complaint, finding that Ms Cordon had not shown that her workload was objectively excessive or that the respondent ignored requests for help, and it rejected the allegation that Ms Zielinska bullied her when asking Ms Parsons to pass on a reminder about a £50 loan instalment.

Applying the Malik implied term of trust and confidence, Western Excavating, the last straw authorities including Omilaju and Kaur, and the objective approach in Tullett Prebon, the tribunal held that the only incident that might objectively have been capable of undermining trust and confidence was the 4 October swearing incident. However, Ms Cordon did not resign in response to that event and continued working for more than four months. The later matters were found either not to have occurred as alleged, to be innocuous, or to have had reasonable and proper cause, so there was no repudiatory breach. The constructive unfair dismissal claim therefore failed, the wrongful dismissal claim failed because she resigned with immediate effect, and the two hours' pay claim failed because the tribunal found the £20.60 payment in December 2019 satisfied the amount owed for the 17 October 2019 start-time adjustment.