Mr Hammoudan v London United Busways Ltd — 2021

The claimant was employed as a bus driver and was summarily dismissed after his bus became stranded on the central island of a roundabout while he was attempting to get past a stationary bus. The tribunal found that the respondent dismissed him for conduct, a potentially fair reason, and that the claimant had accepted during the disciplinary process that he was at fault and that the incident could have brought the respondent into disrepute.

The tribunal found the investigation reasonable and held that the respondent was entitled to treat the claimant's action as deliberate. It rejected the claimant's arguments that the wrong policy had been used, that the sanction relied on three charges, and that length of service, good service or lesser sanctions had not been considered. Although the tribunal accepted dismissal may have been harsh, it held that dismissal was within the band of reasonable responses and that the procedure was fair.

For the wrongful dismissal claim, the tribunal made its own findings about the manoeuvre and found that the claimant consciously drove a significant way onto the central island when other options were available. It concluded that this was gross misconduct and a repudiatory breach of contract, so the respondent was not required to pay notice pay.