Mr R Scarles v Menzies Distribution — 2020

Mr R Scarles worked for Menzies Distribution Limited from 29 January 2015 until he resigned with immediate effect on 29 July 2019. He brought a constructive unfair dismissal claim based on the handling of an April 2019 grievance about his manager, Mrs Donna Smith (formerly Cochran), including complaints about non-call duties, call monitoring, the processing of a reduced-hours request, and whether his health issues had been taken into account. The tribunal found that before the grievance he had a history of absences, had been given absence warnings, had obtained occupational health input, and had successfully reduced his hours in October 2018.

The tribunal found the February 2019 return-to-work meeting was not handled ideally because the discussion about after call work should have been separate from the health and absence discussion, but it found Mrs Smith did not threaten dismissal or disciplinary action. It accepted that she monitored his calls for a day, and found that level of monitoring was justified because his after call work rate was 29% against a target of 11%. The tribunal also found that some of the Claimant's complaints rested on misinterpretations, including his belief that he had been told someone listened to the calls for two days and that he was being threatened with disciplinary action.

On the grievance and appeal, Ms Stallen and then Mrs Campbell investigated the issues, interviewed colleagues, answered the Claimant's points, and provided reasons for rejecting the complaints. The tribunal accepted that the grievance was not perfect, but found it addressed the matters raised, including the call-monitoring issue, the allocation of non-call work, and the reduced-hours request. It held that the Respondent's mistaken view that he had not applied for an admin role did not alter the outcome because he had not asked for that role as the grievance remedy.

Applying the constructive dismissal authorities, including the implied term of trust and confidence, Western Excavating v Sharp, Woods v WM Car Services, Malik v BCCI, Sharfudeen v T J Morris, LB of Waltham Forest v Omilaju and Kaur v Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, the tribunal held that the Respondent had not, either separately or cumulatively, breached contract. It therefore found no constructive dismissal and no unfair dismissal, and the remedy hearing listed for 7 May 2020 was cancelled.