Mr Fraser Rolley v Eros Retail Ltd — 2021

Mr Fraser Rolley started work for Eros Retail Ltd on 21 May 2018 as Area Manager on £27,000 a year and was given a company car. In May 2020, after a dispute about collecting strawberries for store deliveries, Mr Harris Aslam summarily dismissed him for gross misconduct. The tribunal accepted that the claimant had told Mr Shazad Aslam that he had already collected the strawberries when he had not, but it did not accept that he had lied to Mr Harris Aslam when he said he was at the farm. It also did not accept that there had been any prior formal disciplinary process or warning record.

On wrongful dismissal and unfair dismissal, the tribunal held that the claimant had not committed gross misconduct and was entitled to one week’s notice under s.86(1) ERA 1996. Applying s.97(2) ERA 1996, it found the effective date of termination was 20 May 2020, so the claimant had two years’ continuous service and could bring an unfair dismissal claim. The tribunal found the respondent had not proved that conduct was the real reason for dismissal. It said that, even if conduct had been the reason, the procedure was wholly deficient: the claimant was not told in advance that the meeting was disciplinary, was not told of any right to be accompanied, did not have an impartial decision-maker, and there was no proper investigation. The dismissal was therefore unfair.

On wages, the tribunal found that the claimant had not signed the proposed statement of terms or the deductions agreement, so those documents did not authorise deductions. The employee handbook clause relied on by the respondent was not enough on its own, and in any event no demand for payment had been made before the deduction. The tribunal found the vehicle damage had been caused by another driver, that there was no evidence of an invoice or actual repair cost, and that the claimant had cleaned the car as best he could before returning it. It rejected the claimed bonus element because no binding bonus term had been agreed.

The tribunal awarded £519.23 for wrongful dismissal notice pay, £1,090.37 for unlawful deductions, and £10,300.46 for unfair dismissal. The unfair dismissal award comprised a basic award of £1,038.46 and a compensatory award of £9,262.00. It also recorded that the compensatory award included a 25% uplift under s.207A TULR(C)A 1992 because the ACAS Code on disciplinary hearings was not followed, and it identified a prescribed element of £3,634.61 for the period 10 July to 24 August 2020.