Steve Jenner v Brand Consulting Engineers Ltd — 2021

The respondent dismissed Mr Jenner by email on 3 July 2020, saying he had committed gross misconduct by refusing to hand back a laptop when furloughed. Mr Jenner said he had not refused to return it, had asked to speak to Julian Brown about the situation, and had been dismissed without warning or any proper process. The tribunal heard evidence from Mr Jenner, Mr Brown and Mr Smith.

The tribunal found that Mr Jenner did not refuse to return the laptop. It accepted that he wanted to speak to Mr Brown about being furloughed for some time and then asked to have his laptop taken back, but Mr Brown did not speak to him and instead arranged for dismissal to be emailed. The tribunal found there was no explanation of why immediate return was required, no indication that the matter was being treated as disciplinary, and no investigation or process at all. It held that the reason was not conduct; even if it had been, there was no genuine belief on reasonable grounds and the dismissal was outside section 98(4) of the Employment Rights Act 1996.

The tribunal rejected any finding of contributory conduct by Mr Jenner and said that, had a fair procedure been followed, he would not have been dismissed. It therefore made no Polkey reduction. It also found that the ACAS Code was breached and applied the maximum 25% uplift. Mr Jenner had found new work with a similar salary and pension, so he suffered no other loss, and reinstatement or re-engagement was not sought.

On remedy, the tribunal awarded a basic award of £10,760, a compensatory amount made up of £500 for loss of statutory rights and £9,693.31 for notice pay, and then applied the 25% uplift to those awards. The final sum payable under the judgment was £26,191.64. Separately, the tribunal ordered the £1,000 deposit previously paid by the respondent to be paid to Mr Jenner.