Mr A Bedeau v The Co-Operative Group Ltd — 2023

The Tribunal considered a large number of alleged incidents over several years. It accepted that some matters occurred, including Mr Horsfall's handling of the April 2017 vehicle dispute, aspects of the grievance handling that followed, Mr Horsfall's Facebook post, a delayed wage payment caused by an absence-recording error, a rota error, and the Claimant being shown managers' comments shortly before resigning. It found, however, that many other alleged incidents either did not occur as alleged, were ordinary management action, or arose from mistakes or operational issues affecting other drivers as well.

On the Equality Act claims, the Tribunal found that the Claimant had a genuine perception that he was being targeted, but that the evidence did not support findings that the treatment was related to or because of race, or because of his protected act. It found that managers' actions were generally explained by operational issues, disciplinary or grievance processes, lateness, route allocation, workplace adjustments, or the deteriorating working relationship, rather than race or Tribunal proceedings.

On constructive dismissal, the Tribunal found that the final event leading to resignation was the Claimant being shown a file containing managers' views about the working relationship. It accepted this was upsetting and could operate as a last straw, but found there was reasonable and proper cause for showing it and that the cumulative conduct relied on did not objectively amount to a repudiatory breach of the implied term of trust and confidence. The Tribunal concluded that all claims failed and were dismissed.