Mr C Edson v Kammac Limited — 2020

Mr C Edson was employed as an LGV driver. After an anonymous letter alleged that one of his CPC training certificates had been obtained without attendance, Kammac asked him to provide all five CPC certificates and consent to check DVSA records. He initially refused to provide the missing 2014 certificate, and the tribunal found that the respondent suspended him without pay from 20 September 2019 while it investigated whether he had obtained the certificate unlawfully.

The tribunal rejected the claimant's case that the dismissal was really driven by his earlier redundancy dispute or by a campaign to remove him. It found no basis to conclude that the anonymous letter was planted, and treated it as a genuine whistleblowing complaint. The tribunal accepted that the reason for dismissal was Ms Liddell's belief that the claimant had dishonestly obtained a day's wages for a day he had not worked, which was a conduct reason and a potentially fair reason for dismissal. On the evidence, including the claimant's own acceptance that taking pay for a day he had not worked was dishonest, the unfair dismissal claim failed.

The redundancy payment claim also failed because the tribunal found that redundancy was not the true reason for dismissal, so the presumption in s.163(2) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 was rebutted. In the breach of contract claim, the tribunal dismissed the wrongful dismissal/notice element, holding that the claimant's admitted dishonesty entitled the respondent to dismiss without notice. It did, however, uphold the claim so far as it related to the unpaid suspension period, because there was no contractual term allowing suspension without pay and the claimant remained entitled to normal pay from 20 September 2019 until his dismissal on 4 October 2019. The tribunal said the amount had to be calculated from his normal wages, and that a remedy hearing would be needed if the parties could not agree quantum.