Mr N Valley v HSBC Bank plc PRELIMINARY HEARING — 2021

At the preliminary hearing in Leicester on 4 May 2021 before Employment Judge Camp, the tribunal recorded that by consent all complaints apart from unfair dismissal and three section 15 disability complaints were dismissed upon withdrawal under rules 51 and 52 of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure. The remaining section 15 complaint about the claimant's suspension on 26 February 2020 was struck out under rule 37 because it had no reasonable prospects of success. The unfair dismissal claim and the two remaining section 15 complaints, concerning dismissal with effect from 26 March 2020 and the failure to uphold the April 2020 appeal, were found to have little reasonable prospects of success and were made subject to a £50 deposit order under rule 39.

In the tribunal's summary reasons on unfair dismissal, it said the claimant had no procedural arguments with any real prospects of success. It noted that the claimant substantially admitted the five allegations of misconduct relied on for dismissal and that, taken together, those allegations amounted to serious misconduct. The tribunal said that, absent any suggestion of disability discrimination, it would almost certainly have been within the band of reasonable responses to dismiss.

On the disability discrimination complaints, the tribunal said the respondent was highly likely to succeed in showing that dismissal was a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim under section 15(1)(b) of the Equality Act 2010, on the basis that it could not reasonably be expected to tolerate someone in the claimant's role behaving in the way the claimant admitted he had behaved, whether or not that behaviour was a consequence of depression and anxiety. It also said the claimant would need to prove a causal link between his misconduct and his disability, which it described as a difficult point for him to establish.