Mr William Allison v Respondent — 2018

William Allison and Peter Nisbet resigned after being invited to disciplinary hearings about CCTV cameras at the Falkirk site. The tribunal held that the most recent invitation letters of 12 and 15 May 2017 were not, either alone or with the earlier history, repudiatory breaches: they stated that the claimants would have an opportunity to answer the allegations, and the earlier events relied on by the claimants had been affirmed by their continued employment after 2015. Their constructive dismissal claims therefore failed.

Malcolm Nugent was dismissed on 2 June 2017 for conduct said to involve unauthorised tampering with company equipment, refusal to follow management instructions, and dishonesty about an alleged agreement with Neil Etherington and briefings by John Anderson. The tribunal accepted that Derek Harris genuinely believed misconduct had occurred, but held that belief was not formed on reasonable grounds. It criticised the investigation for not interviewing the appropriate manager about the 14 February 2017 notice, not pursuing the allegations that the manager had made comments such as 'I've won' and 'high-fiving', and not properly addressing the long-standing practice of switching the cameras off, the lack of clear instructions, and the managers' awareness of that practice.

The tribunal held that the appeal did not cure those defects, because John Davies treated the appeal as containing no new evidence even though new allegations had been raised, and he did not investigate them. Although the hearing process was conducted off site and in line with policy, the decision to dismiss fell outside the band of reasonable responses under s.98(4) ERA 1996. The unfair dismissal claim therefore succeeded.

On remedy, the tribunal made no deduction for contributory fault. It awarded Malcolm Nugent a basic award of PS2,934 and a compensatory award of PS3,342, made up of PS2,068 past loss, PS924 future loss over 11 months, and PS350 for loss of employment rights. It made no separate pension loss award, recorded PS73.10 Jobseeker's Allowance as the prescribed element, and made no separate award on the pleaded notice or breach-of-contract point because the loss overlapped with the unfair dismissal compensation. William Allison and Peter Nisbet received no award because they had no proved loss.