EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNALS (SCOTLAND) Case No: 4100367/2024 Held at Inverness on & May 2024 Employment Judge N M Hosie 2.5 Miss K Tokarczyk v Aquascot Ltd — 2024

Miss Tokarczyk had worked for Aquascot since 30 January 2013 as an Accounting Technician in the Finance Department. In October 2023 she raised a formal grievance against Naeem Sattar, while he also made a complaint against her and Sandra Kennedy. Anthony Oxford investigated both matters, held the grievance hearing on 17 October 2023, and the claimant resigned later that day, giving notice to 17 November 2023.

The tribunal applied the constructive dismissal test under s.95(1)(c) ERA 1996 and the authorities on fundamental breach and the implied term of trust and confidence. It found that the claimant's meetings on 4 September 2023 with Craig Moffat and on 7 September 2023 with John Housego were informal discussions in which she did not expect action to follow, so they could not amount to a breach of contract. The focus of the case was therefore the exchanges at the grievance meeting on 17 October 2023.

At that meeting, the tribunal found that Mr Oxford had a basis to ask whether the claimant had used the "C word" about Mr Sattar and whether she had made negative comments about him based on religion or race, because he was investigating both her grievance and Mr Sattar's complaint. The tribunal accepted that the alleged error about the language used by the claimant was little more than semantics, and it found that the question about religion and race was reasonable in the circumstances. It also rejected the complaint that more witnesses had to be called, noting that the investigation was comprehensive and that the relevant witness statements were already in the bundle.

The tribunal concluded that Mr Oxford's conduct was not unreasonable and did not amount to a fundamental breach of contract or a breach of the implied term of mutual trust and confidence. It said that the claimant had failed to prove that Aquascot was in fundamental breach, and the claim was dismissed. The tribunal also recorded that the grievance handling was comprehensive and that, by the time the grievance outcome letter was issued on 17 November 2023, the claimant had already resigned.