A Tinnion Mr. Stuart Aitken v Rescue Service — 2021

Mr Aitken was a retained Crew Commander at Tillicoultry Fire Station. The dispute arose after the station commander decided in late 2019 that additional training for new retained firefighters would be given to two wholetime firefighters. The claimant was not consulted, but the tribunal found that decision was made in good faith within the respondent's hierarchical structure and was not taken out of spite or malice.

The tribunal also considered the events at the meeting on 13 January 2020 and the mediation on 9 April 2020. It accepted that some of the language used was unpleasant and that the meetings were highly charged, but it found that the comments made to the claimant did not, either individually or collectively, amount to a breach of the implied term of trust and confidence. The tribunal noted that the 9 April mediation was not wholly unproductive and that it produced agreed steps, including regular meetings, staff updates, a training planner and all training to go through WC Hutcheson.

In the alternative, the tribunal held that the claimant had affirmed his contract after the last alleged breach by appealing the move to half pay and then accepting full contractual pay from 9 July 2020 to at least 8 October 2020. It found that his resignation on 18 November 2020 was not caused by the earlier alleged breaches, but was instead forward-looking and concerned future working relationships. For those reasons there was no dismissal, so the unfair dismissal complaint failed, and the wrongful dismissal complaint also failed. The tribunal said that if unfair dismissal had been established it would have been unfair, but no compensatory award would have been made because of the breakdown in trust and confidence and the claimant's failure to mitigate his loss.