(sitting alone) Miss S Mahomed v Lloyds Bank plc — 2019

The claimant worked for the respondent as a Telephony Assistant/Consultant and was dismissed following concerns about calls on 19 and 31 May 2017. The tribunal found that the disciplinary process concerned the claimant's handling of a customer and an independent financial adviser, including cold transfers, not completing security checks on one call, and not logging a complaint within the respondent's process.

The tribunal accepted the evidence of the respondent's witnesses and found that the respondent had a genuine belief in the alleged misconduct, reasonable grounds for that belief, and had carried out as much investigation as was reasonable in the circumstances. It found that the investigatory meeting was thorough, the claimant understood the concerns, the relevant calls were played to her, and she had opportunities to respond. The tribunal was not persuaded that delay, the suspension correspondence issue, or the reference to Conduct Rules affected the fairness of the dismissal.

The tribunal concluded that conduct was the reason for dismissal and that dismissal was within the band of reasonable responses, noting the respondent's concern with call handling and customer care. It also found that any faults in the earlier process would have been rectified by the appeal. The notice pay claim was dismissed because the tribunal found the conduct amounted to gross misconduct justifying dismissal without notice; the holiday pay claim was dismissed by consent after being resolved on the basis that no holiday pay was owed.