Mr Paul Nka v Telent Technology Services Limited — 2019

Mr Paul Nka was employed by Telent Technology Services Limited as a Maintenance Engineer from 18 November 2014 until summary dismissal on 9 May 2019. The tribunal found that a 26 September 2018 PPE incident led to a final written warning, and that later incidents in December 2018 showed that the claimant had misread site layout information and had left damaged poles potentially live. After those incidents he was assessed and the tribunal found that he was told not to attend road traffic accident jobs, or at least not to attempt to isolate poles, until further training had been arranged.

The dismissal decision arose from the Clapham Common incident on 22 March 2019. The tribunal found that the claimant attended an RTA site despite the management instruction, attempted to deal with the pole, and probably failed to isolate it properly, leaving the site potentially live and exposing the public and colleagues to serious harm from electrocution. It accepted the respondent's evidence and logs over the claimant's account, found his explanations inconsistent, and concluded that Mr Middleton genuinely believed the claimant had committed gross misconduct on reasonable grounds after a reasonable investigation.

Applying s.98(4) ERA 1996 and the range of reasonable responses test, the tribunal held that dismissal was fair, taking account of the claimant's history, the final written warning, and compliance with the ACAS Code of Practice. It also held that the claimant was in fundamental breach of contract and therefore was not wrongfully dismissed / dismissed in breach of contract.

The race discrimination claim failed because the tribunal found no primary facts from which it could infer less favourable treatment on grounds of race. It accepted that Mr Slinn was entitled to rely on the reports of other engineers, found that Mr Costello's safety report was not a false accusation, and held that the claimant was believed because of the safety and competence evidence, not because of race. It also rejected the allegation of predetermination. The tribunal applied s.136 Equality Act 2010 and the authorities it cited on burden of proof and dismissal, including Laws v London Chronicle Ltd, Neary v Dean of Westminster, and Adesokan v Sainsburys Supermarkets Limited. All claims were dismissed.