(sitting alone) Mr M H MacNab v Represented by:15 Ms K Webb & Mr J Anderson Strathclyde University Law Clinic British Telecommunications plc — 2017

Mr M H MacNab, a radio and rigger engineer employed by British Telecommunications plc from 1 April 1999, was dismissed on 26 January 2017 for conduct arising from events on 14 October 2016 at the Thornhill Arqiva site and from a working-at-height allowance claim. The tribunal found that the respondent reasonably believed he had failed to complete the safety and compliance checks, had not reported that the inspection was incomplete, and had claimed two hours height allowance when the evidence and his own accepted timeline showed he had worked at height for less than that.

Applying section 98 ERA 1996, the tribunal held that conduct was a potentially fair reason for dismissal under section 98(2). It accepted that the investigation was reasonably thorough, that the decision-makers had reasonable grounds for their belief, and that the absence of an interview with Mr McConnell did not make the investigation unfair because the claimant's own account was accepted on the relevant points. Under section 98(4), the tribunal found the procedure, taken as a whole, was within the band of reasonable procedures, despite a two-month delay before the investigatory meeting and a short-lived issue about access to the work diary.

On sanction, the tribunal held that dismissal was within the band of reasonable responses. It accepted that the claimant and Mr McConnell knew the Thornhill Arqiva inspection had not been completed properly, that the claimant had not raised the non-completion, and that the respondent was entitled to treat that as a breach of trust. The tribunal also noted that the overclaim was only £16, but concluded that, given the need for trust in engineers working unsupervised, dismissal was still reasonable. The claim was therefore dismissed in full.