Mr C Markie v Represented by: Mr J Lawson, Solicitor The Salvation Army Trustee Company — 2024

Mr C Markie had worked for the respondent as a Social Services Worker since June 2005. On 5 March 2024, during a discussion at Strathmore Lodge about housing options for service users, he said there would not be a housing shortage if the organisation were not taking in 150 refugees and said, in substance, 'send them all back on a boat'. Colleagues were shocked, management investigated, and he was dismissed with effect from 31 May 2024 after a disciplinary hearing on 29 May 2024; his appeal was rejected on 13 July 2024. The tribunal found the respondent's witnesses credible and the claimant less credible, and it accepted that the respondent's records of the investigatory, disciplinary and appeal meetings were accurate.

In the unfair dismissal claim, the tribunal applied section 98 ERA 1996, the Burchell test and the range of reasonable responses approach, including Iceland Frozen Foods v Jones and Post Office v Foley. It held that the respondent had a genuine belief that the claimant had committed misconduct, on reasonable grounds and after a reasonable investigation. Although the claimant raised some procedural points, including that the investigator was also a witness, the tribunal found no material unfairness because the process overall was fair, the claimant understood the allegation, and the appeal was a detailed rehearing. The tribunal accepted that the claimant had a clean disciplinary record and had apologised, but found that he lacked insight, that alternatives to dismissal were considered, and that summary dismissal for the single incident was within the band of reasonable responses.

The remaining direct sex discrimination and harassment claims concerned the claimant's allegation that his manager had made a humiliating comment about his 'old man's balls'. The tribunal found that the comment originated from the claimant himself and not from the manager, that he had not raised the matter at the time, and that he only brought it forward later in the appeal process. It found those claims were not made out and dismissed them.