Ms V Moss v Age UK Leeds — 2024

The claimant, a service manager at Age UK Leeds, was dismissed following a chain of events in June 2023 in which a colleague raised concerns to her about other staff, she escalated those concerns to senior management, and she was later accused of breaching confidentiality and undermining the resulting investigation in conversations with two colleagues (VW and XY). The tribunal heard from the claimant and one team member, and from five respondent witnesses including the operations director, CEO, the disciplinary decision-maker, and two trustees who heard the appeals.

On liability, the tribunal found that the claimant's whistleblowing detriment complaint partially succeeded and was otherwise dismissed, and that her section 103A automatic unfair dismissal complaint did not succeed because the principal reason for dismissal was not the making of protected disclosures. Her ordinary unfair dismissal complaint succeeded: applying Burchell and s.98(4) ERA 1996, the tribunal held that the investigation had a significant deficit, that the main points of the claimant's defence were not properly considered, and that neither the appeal officer nor the chair of trustees added anything to the investigation, so the dismissal fell outside the band of reasonable responses for a charity of around 60 staff with access to external HR support.

The wrongful dismissal complaint also succeeded: the tribunal preferred the claimant's oral evidence, noted there had been no further interview of VW to clarify what was said, and concluded her conversations with VW and XY did not amount to deliberate and wilful serious misconduct demonstrating she would no longer be bound by her contract. The unlawful deduction from wages claim and all remedy issues were adjourned to a remedy hearing listed for 17 December 2024.