Oliver Isaacs, Counsel For the v Respondent — 2020

The claimant was a firefighter and FBU health and safety representative. After he sent Vision 4-related material to his FBU line manager on 1 February 2020, and after the East Coast Consortium Safety Critical Notice of 2 February 2020, Hertfordshire County Council investigated whether he had shared documents outside the organisation without permission, disclosed personal data, and shared commercially sensitive information. Mr Bigland issued a first written warning on 31 March 2021, and the appeal was dismissed by Mr Kemp, although no complaint was brought about the appeal itself.

The tribunal found that Mr Bigland was wrong to classify the matter as gross misconduct. He never read the documents said to have been disclosed, did not engage properly with the claimant's points that he was acting in his FBU role and that public-interest or health-and-safety exemptions might apply, and made unsupported comments suggesting the claimant was more concerned about Bedfordshire Fire & Rescue and Capita than the Safety Critical Notice. On that basis, the section 44 ERA claim succeeded because the warning was materially influenced by the claimant's involvement in the Safety Critical Notice and the investigation that led to it.

The section 146 TULRCA claim failed. The tribunal accepted that Mr Bigland was genuinely concerned about GDPR and the possible misuse of commercially sensitive information, so it was not satisfied that the sole or main purpose of the warning was to deter or penalise trade union activity. On remedy, the claimant had sought £9,100 by reference to the lower Vento band, but the tribunal awarded £6,000, describing it as compensation for the claimant's loss and noting that no further sums were claimed.