John Taylor v Respondent — 2021

John Taylor brought a single claim of unfair dismissal after being dismissed with effect from 14 January 2021. The respondent said the dismissal was for conduct following an altercation on 1 December 2020 at its Dixon's Blazes warehouse with a colleague, Manny Singh. The tribunal accepted that the respondent genuinely believed the claimant had used inappropriate and abusive language in an intimidating and aggressive manner towards Mr Singh, and that a disciplinary investigation and appeal were carried out by Angela Welsh, Ashish Lamba and Randhir Bawa.

The tribunal held, however, that the reasons for dismissal went beyond the incident notified to the claimant. In the evidence of both Mr Lamba and Mr Bawa, the decision was influenced by their understanding of the claimant's past history, including alleged previous threats, a belief that he had phoned people to say he would stab them, and an earlier hammer incident. Those matters were not put to the claimant as part of the allegation he had to answer. The tribunal found that this went beyond the charge, contrary to the principle in Strouthos and the ACAS Code paragraph on supplying sufficient information and written evidence, and meant the respondent failed the second and third limbs of the Burchell test.

The tribunal therefore found the dismissal unfair under section 98(4) of the Employment Rights Act 1996. It rejected any Polkey reduction, finding it was not possible to predict that the claimant would fairly have been dismissed in any event, and it rejected a reduction for contributory conduct, preferring the claimant's account of the 1 December incident and finding that his conduct was not blameworthy. In remedy, the tribunal awarded a basic award of £1,850.45 and a compensatory award of £4,142.80, including £350 for loss of statutory rights and loss of earnings limited to the statutory sick pay period. The recoupment regulations applied, with the prescribed element being £4,142.80.