EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNALS (SCOTLAND)5 Case No: 4104168/2020 Hearing Held by Cloud Video Platform (CVP) on February 2021 Employment Judge - A Strain Ms E Doherty v Walker Precision Engineering Ltd — 2021

Ms E Doherty was employed by Walker Precision Engineering Ltd from 4 July 2017. The respondent found that the holiday tracker had been altered on 21 February 2020 using the claimant's log-in details, after a period when the spreadsheet had not been password protected. The claimant was investigated, invited to a disciplinary hearing, and then dismissed for gross misconduct on 21 May 2020, with her appeal later dismissed on 10 June 2020.

Applying section 98(4) ERA 1996 and the Burchell approach, the tribunal held that the respondent had a genuine belief that the claimant had committed misconduct, had reasonable grounds for that belief, and had carried out as much investigation as was reasonable in the circumstances. It relied on the documentary evidence showing the claimant's log-in being used, the absence of evidence that another person had accessed her workstation, and the fact that the claimant did not raise until after dismissal that she had been outside the building at the material time. The tribunal also found the investigation, disciplinary hearing and appeal process fair, including the delay caused by annual leave and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The unfair dismissal claim was dismissed. On pay and holiday pay, the tribunal accepted the respondent's calculations that the claimant was entitled to 113 hours of holiday but had taken 136 hours, leaving no further holiday pay due. It also found that the claimant had later been paid 18 hours of flexitime pay on 10 February 2021, so no further sums were due on that head either.