The claimant brought numerous grievances against senior managers. These were concerned with, amongst other matters, the failure of senior managers to include him in meetings which he thought he should be attending. Management considered that decisions as to who should attend were a matter for them. The grievances could not be resolved at the informal stage, in part because the claimant wished to discuss his grievances informally with his line manager who had no authority to resolve concerns about more senior managers. However, the claimant refused to progress any of the grievances to the formal stage, instead seeking to retain the ability to do so, and neither did he withdraw the grievances. A grievance hearing was fixed but the claimant refused to attend despite being informed that attendance was considered to be a reasonable instruction. The grievance hearing proceeded and the grievances were not upheld. The respondent considered the claimant’s conduct to amount to gross misconduct in that he had brought numerous vexatious and frivolous grievances and had refused to comply with a reasonable management instruction to attend the meeting. He was dismissed. The ET found that his dismissal was fair. The claimant appealed. The principal ground of appeal was that the ET had erred in failing to consider whether the conduct relied upon was capable of amounting to gross misconduct in the contractual sense and that the ET’s conclusions were perverse.
Held, dismissing the appeal, that the ET had not erred in its approach. The test under s.98(4) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 involved a consideration of all the circumstances, one of which might include, in some cases, the fact that the conduct relied upon involved a breach of contract amounting to gross misconduct. However, there was no such contractual element in this case and an analysis on that basis was not required. The ET was entitled to conclude that the employer had acted reasonably in treating the reason for dismissal, namely the claimant’s conduct as described, as being a sufficient reason to dismiss in all the circumstances.
The Honourable Mr Justice Choudhury (President)
[2021] UKEAT 2020-000187
Bailii
Employment Rights Act 1996 98(4)
England and Wales
Employment
Updated: 16 January 2022; Ref: scu.670765
