Claimant v Iceland Foods Limited — 2019

The claimant was dismissed for gross misconduct after admitting that she ate one Twirl at the checkout and gave one to a customer's child without payment. The respondent treated this as misconduct and believed it had a potentially fair conduct reason for dismissal, but the Tribunal found that the investigation before dismissal was not reasonable in the circumstances.

The Tribunal found that the investigation report contained inaccuracies or unsupported conclusions about whether the claimant had been asked to repair and reduce stock, what she had been asked by a supervisor, and whether other staff practices had been considered. The claimant had raised that sweets were commonly left at tills, that staff ate each other's food, and that others had been treated differently, but these matters were not adequately investigated before dismissal. Later appeal-stage enquiries did not cure the earlier defects.

The Tribunal accepted that the claimant had breached the policy by eating at the till and not checking for a receipt, but found that the respondent had not sufficiently investigated whether the claimant had acted dishonestly or whether the strict policy was being enforced at the Paisley store. In those circumstances, summary dismissal was found to be disproportionate and outside the band of reasonable responses. Compensation was reduced by 50% for contributory fault, with no Polkey reduction and no ACAS uplift.