Mr T Cooley v Ocado Retail Ltd — 2021

Mr T Cooley was employed by Ocado Retail Limited from 6 January 2020, first as a packer and then as a Technical Assistant. The tribunal accepted his evidence that he raised health and safety concerns about blocked fire exits, cardboard and pallets obstructing access to extinguishers, a conveyor safety switch blocked with a cable tie, and a lift repair being carried out without isolating the power. It treated those matters as qualifying disclosures under s.43B ERA and noted that the respondent did not attend, so the claimant's evidence was uncontroverted.

The tribunal found that after those disclosures the claimant was given unpleasant cleaning work, was not supported when covering absences, was insulted over the radio channel, and was turned down for promotion on three occasions. It held that the treatment was because of the disclosures, that the treatment and promotion refusals together breached trust and confidence, and that his resignation amounted to constructive dismissal. On that basis, and because the reason for dismissal was the protected disclosures, the dismissal was automatically unfair under s.103A ERA.

The separate s.98 ordinary unfair dismissal claim failed because the claimant had less than two years' continuous service, so the tribunal had no jurisdiction. The unlawful deduction from wages claim also failed because the earlier underpayment had been corrected and there was no evidence of any outstanding deduction or proven pay-rise entitlement, and the written pay statement claim was dismissed. On remedy, the tribunal awarded £14,299.88 for financial loss, £6,000 for injury to feelings, and £660 for counselling treatment costs, making a total award of £20,959.88; it made no award for loss of statutory rights.