Mrs Karen Urquhart v Represented by Mr F Lefevre Solicitor Temple Medical Ltd — 2020

Mrs Karen Urquhart worked for Temple Medical Ltd from 1 May 2010. After she emailed on 30 June 2019 claiming she had been underpaid under a 8 June 2016 contract referring to her as Clinical Director on £30 per hour, Dr Robson suspended her on 16 July 2019 on allegations that she had fraudulently created a contract for her own financial gain. Professor Eagle dismissed her summarily on 5 August 2019.

The tribunal held that the dismissal was unfair under s.98 ERA 1996. It accepted that the respondent was alleging misconduct, but found the investigation inadequate and one-sided. The respondent relied on IT advice that document dates could be altered, but that material was not put to the claimant at the investigatory or disciplinary stages. The tribunal also found there was no direct evidence that she had altered the contract date, that the respondent had wrongly assumed earlier payslips showed her hourly rate, and that alternative explanations linked to the respondent's poor record keeping and IT problems were not properly explored.

The tribunal rejected the respondent's alternative argument that the dismissal was justified by a breakdown in the relationship. It found no reasonable employer could have concluded that the claimant was perpetrating a fraud on the evidence available. No reduction was made for contributory conduct or Polkey, and the tribunal awarded a basic award of £5,717.70 and a compensatory award of £1,579.26.

The tribunal also upheld wrongful dismissal, but made no separate award because it treated that issue as subsumed within the unfair dismissal award. It upheld the unlawful deduction from wages claim for £1,787.36, finding the respondent had not shown that the claimant had worked fewer hours than she had been paid for, and it upheld the holiday pay claim for £266.40 gross on the basis that 1.6 days accrued leave remained due when employment ended.