Mrs L Stewart v London Underground Limited — 2021

The Claimant, a train driver, was summarily dismissed after the Respondent concluded that she had dishonestly reported suffering a knee injury in her cab during an incident on 7 April 2019. The Tribunal accepted that the dismissing officer genuinely believed she had fabricated the accident report, and that dismissal would have been within the range of reasonable responses if that belief had been reasonably reached.

The Tribunal found that the Respondent's investigation was outside the band of reasonable investigations. It had not investigated why the Claimant would have dishonestly attributed an injury to an accident at work, had not adequately considered contemporaneous sickness absence records and medical evidence, and had not shown the CCTV footage to an appropriate medical expert despite the Claimant's explanation that adrenaline could have masked pain. Medical evidence obtained from occupational health potentially supported the Claimant's explanation but was not disclosed to her or addressed in the decision-making.

The Tribunal also found procedural failings, including failure to share occupational health and cyber security advice with the Claimant, assumptions made about her ability to use stairs and drive home without discussing them with her or medical experts, and undisclosed appeal-stage inquiries about whether photo dates could be changed. It concluded that no Polkey reduction should be made because, on a fair process, there was no real chance a reasonable employer would still have dismissed for dishonesty. It also rejected contributory fault, finding on the balance of probabilities that the Claimant suffered a knee injury at work, although her initial description of the trigger for the fall was inaccurate.