Carl Wheeler v Association for Spinal Injury Rehabilitation and Reintegration (‘Aspire’) — 2024

Carl Wheeler worked for Aspire as a part-time swimming teacher from April 2019 on a series of fixed-term contracts and from 19 April 2022 on a permanent term-time contract. He was disabled by autism spectrum disorder and consequent depression. He raised grievances in May 2021 and August 2022 and resigned on 3 September 2022 after receiving a disciplinary invitation. The tribunal found that the resignation was not shown to be in response to any repudiatory breach by Aspire.

The holiday pay complaint failed. The tribunal accepted that the earlier payslips and contracts did not make the rolled-up holiday element transparent and comprehensible, but it found that Wheeler was permitted to take annual leave in school holidays, that he did not prove any unpaid holiday days before April 2022, and that he had no outstanding leave on termination. It also held that the unlawful deduction claim was out of time.

The tribunal rejected the constructive dismissal case. It found that the first and second grievances were investigated reasonably, that there was no unfair attempt to protect those named in the grievance, that Ms Binder did not ask Wheeler to resign, and that the poolside conversation on 7 December 2020 was loud only because the poolside was noisy. It also rejected the complaints about continuous criticism, lack of disability support, lack of training, failure to pay grievance-meeting time, and the disciplinary process. The disciplinary proceedings were found to be about unauthorised absences on 9 and 16 July 2022, not about being one minute late.