Mr Edward McEachan v Enviraz (Scotland) Ltd — 2021

Mr Edward McEachan brought an unfair dismissal claim against Enviraz (Scotland) Ltd after his summary dismissal following a 17 March 2021 incident at the Glasgow premises. The ET1 also mentioned "other payments" relating to tools, but the tribunal recorded that this issue was outside its jurisdiction and was not decided. The respondent accepted that the dismissal was for conduct, and the tribunal refused a strike-out application based on the claimant's failure to provide loss details, treating merits and remedy separately and making a short compliance order instead.

The dismissal arose from an argument with director Ralph Cruikshanks about work left at a Johnstone site. The tribunal found that the claimant swore at Mr Cruikshanks and refused to go into his office, but it also found that the respondent relied mainly on witness statements from Mr Whitehill and Mr Paterson and did not show the claimant Mr Cruikshanks' own statement before the disciplinary hearing. The tribunal held that the decision-makers had a genuine belief in misconduct, but that the investigation was not reasonable because the claimant was not given the victim's account, no further enquiries were made of Mr Cruikshanks or Mr McCarter, and the key allegation depended on evidence that was not properly put to the claimant.

Applying s.98(4) ERA 1996 and the Burchell approach, the tribunal held the dismissal unfair. It rejected a 100% Polkey reduction, finding it unlikely that the respondent would have fairly dismissed the claimant if fair procedures had been followed. It found contributory conduct only in the claimant's swearing at Mr Cruikshanks, not in his refusal to attend the meeting, and reduced both the basic award and compensatory award by 25%. The tribunal awarded a basic award of £1,533.75 and a compensatory award of £5,036.25, producing a monetary award of £6,570.00; it accepted the claimant's mitigation evidence, assessed net loss of earnings at £6,365.00 before the contributory reduction, and also awarded £350.00 for loss of statutory rights.