Mr P Badu v Brooknight Security Ltd — 2021

The claimant, a security officer, was dismissed with immediate effect for gross misconduct after an incident on 4 June 2020. The tribunal found the real and only reason for dismissal was conduct, not race or any wish to remove employees said to be on non-zero-hours contracts. It found the respondent had a genuine conduct reason, but the dismissal was unfair because the investigation did not follow up a potentially relevant witness, the dismissal letter did not clearly state that the claimant's explanation was not accepted as true, and the respondent restricted the appeal in a way that breached its own policy and the ACAS Code.

The tribunal found that, despite those procedural defects, the claimant would have been dismissed in any event after a fair procedure, which would have extended employment by three weeks. It also found the claimant's conduct on 4 June 2020 was blameworthy and involved a degree of dishonesty, and decided that both the basic award and compensatory award should be reduced by 75%, with any compensation to be determined at a remedy hearing.

The race discrimination claim was dismissed. The tribunal found the proposed comparator was not in materially similar circumstances, that general assertions about poor treatment of black staff were not supported by evidence, and that race played no part in the dismissal. On holiday pay, the tribunal found the claimant was entitled to 6.99 days accrued holiday pay, not a full year's entitlement, but left unresolved whether the payment already made represented the correct amount for 6.99 days.