Mr P Coss v Bennington Foods Ltd PRELIMINARY HEARING — 2019

This was a preliminary hearing on Mr P Coss's single claim of unfair dismissal against Bennington Foods Ltd. The claimant had been dismissed with notice from his role as a Production Operator at a pet food plant, with an effective date of termination of 29 August 2019. The tribunal recorded that he had received a final written warning in January 2019, that the warning was still live when he was dismissed, and that the respondent relied on allegations that he had asked colleagues to clock out for him, had failed to ensure the powder needed for production was prepared, and had verbally abused a manager.

The tribunal did not strike out the claim. It found that the claim was not shown to have no reasonable prospects of success, but that it had little reasonable prospects of success, and it ordered the claimant to pay a £100 deposit. In reaching that view, the tribunal recorded that the claimant's own account was that other staff and managers had conspired against him, and that he accepted the dismissal decision-makers acted in good faith, carried out a reasonable investigation, followed a reasonable procedure, and reached a reasonable decision on the information available to them.

The tribunal said the only realistic way the claimant could succeed would be if he could show that a manager had set him up and, applying Royal Mail Group Ltd v Jhuti and section 98(4) of the Employment Rights Act 1996, that this affected the fairness analysis. It also noted that the claimant had conducted the proceedings unreasonably, including abusive communications and inappropriate behaviour at the hearing, but declined strikeout because he had not been warned and a fair trial remained possible.