Mrs M Gear v Represented by:15 Mrs A Sneddon Solicitor Arden House Projects Company Limited — 2019

Mrs M Gear was employed by Arden House Projects Ltd as manager from 1 May 2012. The tribunal found that the reason for dismissal was conduct. It accepted that the main concerns arose from the claimant's role in the letters and meeting of 4 to 6 July 2018, and also from later issues concerning the defined benefit pension scheme, payments to Lyndsey Young, and alleged contact with staff while suspended.

On the merits, the tribunal held that the claimant's signing and delivery of the 6 July 2018 letter, which referred to removing the board and was sent with resignation forms, together with the private meeting on 5 July 2018 and the claimant's lack of candour about it, entitled a reasonable employer to regard the first allegation as gross misconduct. It also held that the claimant's direct contact with TPT Retirement Solutions in relation to the pension scheme, in circumstances where she knew her membership was being used to avoid crystallising the respondent's deficit, supported dismissal. The tribunal did not accept allegation three as reasonably investigated or reasonably believed, and regarded allegation four as of little importance on its own.

The tribunal nevertheless held that the dismissal was unfair under section 98(4) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 because two procedural defects fell outside the range of reasonable responses. First, supplementary witness statements relating to the daughter-hours issue were not disclosed to the claimant before dismissal. Second, the respondent wrongly refused to act on the appeal letter sent by her solicitors. Applying Polkey, the tribunal found that a fair dismissal would probably have followed one week later in any event, so the procedural unfairness only delayed the dismissal by one week.

For remedy, the tribunal found that the claimant's weekly pay was £443 and that she had six years' service, so the basic award would have been £3,987, but it was reduced to nil for 100% contribution. The compensatory award was assessed at one week's net pay of £369.59, producing a total award of £369.59. The tribunal also found that recoupment did not apply because the claimant did not receive benefits after termination.