Unfair Dismissal – Polkey Deduction – Contributory Fault
The claimant, an employee in the oil and gas sector in Aberdeen, was dismissed by his employer. The Tribunal having concluded that the dismissal was both procedurally and substantively unfair, the respondent sought to reduce the compensatory award on the Polkey principle and to reduce compensation on the basis of the claimant’s contribution to his dismissal. A Polkey reduction of one third was made but there was no reduction for contributory fault. The respondent appealed.
Held: 1) The one third deduction could not be regarded as manifestly less than the percentage that might have been proper ( Contract Bottling Limited v Cave and another [2015] ICR 146). A substantial chance of redundancy could easily be less than 50%.
2) The single error on the part of the claimant fell far short of anything that might have caused or contributed to dismissal and the Tribunal’s approach to the application of section 123(6) ERA 1996 had been correct.
Appeal dismissed.
Citations:
[2018] UKEAT 0016 – 17 – 2908
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Employment
Updated: 12 July 2022; Ref: scu.630725