Hello again and welcome back to our case of the week update. As last week was the end of the month we ended in our newsletter, where we looked at McDonalds’ employees in sexual harassment allegations, twitter staff issues, and a new recruit to the Firm!

This week we are looking at whether you can be dismissed by someone you have never met!

The Claimant in this case, Ms Despina Charalambous, was a relationship manager at the Respondent, National Bank of Greece. Following a successful career with other banking companies such as HSBC and Bank of Cyprus UK, her employment started on 28 May 2014.

In 2017, the Claimant made a protected disclosure relating to a suspicious transaction, with another disclosure being made in 2019 on the belief that Financial Conduct Authority rules had been broken. Shortly after the second disclosure, on 23 January, the Claimant wrote an email copying in multiple senior members of staff stating that as her colleagues had taken voluntary redundancy, she should assume the role of senior relationship manager. Among the people copied into the email, which included highly confidential financial information for the Respondent, was a trade union representative, the Claimant’s solicitor, her personal email account, and the Claimant’s brother. Following a short meeting she was suspended following an investigation.

In the investigation meeting, despite being prompted multiple times if the email had been sent to anyone else, the Claimant failed to proffer the information that her solicitor had been blind copied into the email. Despite this omission the Claimant was invited back for a formal disciplinary meeting. The fact that the solicitor had been forwarded this information was not brought to the Respondent’s attention at this meeting either.

The primary issue came when the manager involved with conducting the investigation and disciplinary meetings, passed the information and his notes on the meetings onto another senior member of staff, the country manager. It was this member manager, a person whom the Claimant had never had contact with, that made the decision to dismiss the Claimant, citing that the discrimination complaint was unfounded and that the emails could not have been sent by mistake on three separate occasions, as well as the company handbook that required dismissal be decided by a country manager.

An Employment Tribunal initially found in favour of the Respondent. An appeal was then brought against their decision, claiming that the procedure was unfair due to the difference between the investigating manager and the manager deciding the dismissal. The issue of whether the Claimant was considered a whistleblower was also considered in relation to her disclosures.

The whistleblowing point was dismissed due to a lack of evidence that the dismissal was in any way related to the protected disclosures made by the Claimant.

However, extensive consideration was given to the submission that it needed to be the same manager conducting the investigation meeting as the manager making the decision to dismiss. While there is established precedent for conducting a fair dismissal process, which does include direct communication between management staff and employees being dismissed, the Employment Appeal Tribunal found that this only required communication between a member of management, rather than the member of staff.

In any event, the EAT also found that the appeal meeting was conducted by the dismissing manager which would have corrected any procedural unfairness regardless.

The Takeaway Points

While issues like the ones described above can sometimes feel unfair in the moment, it is important to remember that not all dismissals are unfair and that not all actions are connected.

There is important precedent that is addressed in this case, being the Budgen case, wherein an employee was dismissed following a conversation with security staff rather than a manager, which was held to be unfair. However, distinctions were drawn between interviews being carried out by a manager in general and them being carried out by the dismissing manager. Providing the procedure was fair, the Employment Appeal Tribunal found that it does not need to be the same manager conducting the disciplinary interview as the person who makes the decision to dismiss.

If you or someone you know is experiencing any of the issues found above, please contact a member of our staff who will be able to assist you.

Feedback always welcome and thanks again.