Case 3201314/2020 · Employment Tribunal
Mr P Ogieriakhi v Serco Limited — 2021
- Case reference
- 3201314/2020
- Decision date
- 22 February 2021
- Jurisdiction
- England & Wales
- Judge
- Employment Judge Reid Representation
Parties
2 namedClaimant
Mr P Ogieriakhi
Respondent
Key findings
Tribunal's reasoningThe claimant was dismissed without notice after two incidents in August 2019. One involved an unsolicited approach to a senior member of nursing staff, RG, inviting her to a church event. The other involved a complaint by BB that the claimant made a threatening comment to her during a telephone call about waste bags. The appeal upheld the claimant's challenge in relation to the RG incident to the extent that it was not gross misconduct, but upheld dismissal on the BB incident.
On unfair dismissal, the tribunal found that the respondent carried out a reasonable investigation by obtaining evidence from RG, BB and the claimant, and that the claimant knew from the investigation stage who had made the BB allegation and could respond to it. The tribunal found it was reasonable for the respondent to accept BB's account over the claimant's, including in light of credibility issues arising from the claimant's changing accounts.
The tribunal concluded that the dismissal for the BB incident fell within the range of reasonable responses and dismissed the unfair dismissal claim. It also found that the claimant made the threatening comment to BB, that this amounted to gross misconduct, and that the respondent was entitled to dismiss him without notice, so the wrongful dismissal claim for notice pay was dismissed.
Claims and outcomes
2 findings recorded| Claim type | Issue or finding | Outcome | Protected characteristic | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unfair dismissal | The tribunal found the claimant was not unfairly dismissed. It also stated that, even if the dismissal had been unfair, there would have been a 100% chance of dismissal in any event and a 100% reduction for contributory conduct. | Dismissed | — | — |
| Wrongful dismissal | The tribunal described this as a wrongful dismissal claim for notice pay and found the respondent was entitled to dismiss without notice for gross misconduct arising from the BB incident. | Dismissed | — | — |
Legal tests applied
8 references- s98 Employment Rights Act 1996
- BHS v Burchell [1978] IRLR 379
- range of reasonable responses test
- Iceland Frozen Foods Ltd v Jones [1982] IRLR 439
- Sainsbury's v Hitt [2003] IRLR 23
- Employment Tribunals Extension of Jurisdiction (England and Wales) Order 1994
- s122(2) Employment Rights Act 1996
- s123(6) Employment Rights Act 1996
Official outcome judgment PDF
Gov.uk primary recordThe official judgment PDF on gov.uk contains the tribunal's outcome, reasoning, and any remedy details. Where this page does not yet show extracted outcomes for every claim, use the PDF as the authoritative source.
Published on gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
How we got this data
Case essentials (reference, date, judge, venue, country, claim categories) are extracted from the structured metadata gov.uk publishes alongside each decision. Parties and monetary figures are extracted from the judgment PDF text. Key findings and per-claim outcomes require a second extraction pass that is not yet complete for this case — until then, the primary source linked above is the authoritative record. See full methodology.
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