Case 3300353/2023 · Employment Tribunal
Mr M Young v Royal Mail Group Limited — 2024
- Case reference
- 3300353/2023
- Decision date
- 12 April 2024
- Jurisdiction
- England & Wales
- Judge
- Employment Judge Anstis
- Venue
- Reading
Parties
2 namedClaimant
Mr M Young
Respondent
Key findings
Tribunal's reasoningThe claimant, a delivery driver and CWU member, was dismissed after posting two messages in a CWU WhatsApp group during a period of planned industrial action. The tribunal found that neither message amounted to participation in the activities of an independent trade union, and that the claimant was not dismissed for trade union membership.
The tribunal accepted that the dismissal was for conduct, a potentially fair reason. It found that the second WhatsApp post was reasonably treated as threatening and intimidating towards colleagues, even though the claimant said it was intended as a joke. The tribunal also found that the respondent's investigation and disciplinary process were not unfair.
The claimant argued that the sanction reflected a wider heavy-handed approach to misconduct connected with industrial action and relied on later reviews of other cases. The tribunal acknowledged those matters but did not find that they showed a deliberate policy of imposing harsher sanctions or that this dismissal was outside the range of reasonable responses. The claims were dismissed.
Claims and outcomes
2 findings recorded| Claim type | Issue or finding | Outcome | Protected characteristic | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trade union | The tribunal dismissed the automatic unfair dismissal case based on trade union activities or membership, finding the WhatsApp posts were not participation in trade union activities and that the claimant was not dismissed for union membership. | Dismissed | — | — |
| Unfair dismissal | The tribunal dismissed the ordinary unfair dismissal claim, finding conduct was the reason for dismissal and dismissal was within the range of reasonable responses. | Dismissed | — | — |
Legal tests applied
5 references- s152(1)(b) Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992
- Brennan v Ellward [1976] IRLR 378
- s152(1)(a) Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992
- section 98 Employment Rights Act 1996
- range of reasonable responses
Official outcome judgment PDF
Gov.uk primary recordThe official judgment PDF on gov.uk contains the tribunal's outcome, reasoning, and any remedy details. Where this page does not yet show extracted outcomes for every claim, use the PDF as the authoritative source.
Published on gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
How we got this data
Case essentials (reference, date, judge, venue, country, claim categories) are extracted from the structured metadata gov.uk publishes alongside each decision. Parties and monetary figures are extracted from the judgment PDF text. Key findings and per-claim outcomes require a second extraction pass that is not yet complete for this case — until then, the primary source linked above is the authoritative record. See full methodology.
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