In person For the v Whitefriars Plant Ltd — 2022

The claimant worked for the respondent from 20 September 2019 as a ground worker at a construction site and took home £544 per week. The parties were common ground that he was entitled to one week's notice unless he had been properly dismissed for gross misconduct. He was dismissed on 21 January 2020 after a mobile telephone belonging to a foreman was found in his jacket pocket, but there was no disciplinary process and he was dismissed on the spot.

The respondent's case was that the claimant had misappropriated the telephone and that dismissal without notice was justified. The claimant denied taking it and said it had been planted on him. The tribunal accepted the claimant's oral evidence on the balance of probabilities, found him credible, and concluded that he did not take the phone and that it had been placed in his pocket without his knowledge. The tribunal also gave limited weight to the respondent's evidence because no representative attended the hearing and the witness statement could not be tested in evidence.

The tribunal took into account that no disciplinary procedure was held, that the claimant was not given a hearing, and that neither the claimant nor the tribunal had been able to examine the phone or the tracking app said to have been used. It said it did not need to decide the motive behind the events of 21 January 2020, but drew inferences from the lack of investigation and hearing. On that basis it found that the respondent had not shown gross misconduct entitling it to dismiss without notice.

The tribunal therefore found a breach of contract and wrongful dismissal, and awarded damages of £544, representing one week's net wages in lieu of notice.