Mr J Rawnsley v Queniborough Aluminium Services Limited Heard via Cloud Video Platform — 2021

The tribunal found that on 17 October 2019 the claimant and Mr Beall had a confrontation about the cleanliness of the stores area. It found that Mr Beall lost his temper, struck the claimant on the face, pushed him and told him to get out. The claimant left work, wrote on his clock card that he had been 'Attacked by owner' and no longer felt safe, reported the incident to the police, and the tribunal concluded from the contemporaneous documents and later text messages that he resigned on that date rather than remaining employed. On that basis the tribunal held that the respondent's conduct was a fundamental breach of the implied term of trust and confidence and that the claimant had been unfairly constructively dismissed on 17 October 2019.

The tribunal also considered the respondent's letter of 21 October 2019 stating that the claimant had resigned and, if not, he would be dismissed for gross insubordination. It found that this letter showed that, had the claimant not already resigned, he would have been dismissed on 21 October 2019, but it could not conclude that such a dismissal would have been fair or that compensation should be reduced on a Polkey or contributory-conduct basis. The tribunal therefore awarded a basic award of £780, a compensatory award of £4,651.56, and £450 for loss of statutory rights in respect of unfair dismissal. It also accepted that the claimant had only been paid for two of his four weeks' notice and awarded a further two weeks' notice pay at £353 per week, together with four days' holiday pay at £70.60 per day.

On age discrimination, the tribunal rejected the allegations based on Mr Beall striking the claimant and on the dismissal itself, finding that Mr Beall had lost his temper because of frustration about the claimant's attitude to work rather than because of his age. It did find that the repeated description of the claimant as a 'spoilt child' in the 21 October 2019 letter was direct age discrimination because it was inherently discriminatory conduct based on age. For that single act it awarded £1,000 for injury to feelings at the lowest end of the Vento band and £80 interest. The total award was £7,949.96.