Royal Mail employee unfairly dismissed after manager’s false report

A Royal Mail employee has won her case of unfair dismissal in a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court.

 Ms Kamaljeet Jhuti joined the Marketreach unit of Royal Mail in October 2013 on a trial basis as a media specialist.

 She quickly raised concerns about potential regulatory breaches in the processes. She made the comments under the company’s whistle blower policy, in which her comments were “protected disclosures”.

 However, Jhuti’s line manager responded by undermining her performance levels and giving the impression to other members of management that she was not a good worker.

 Another manager was tasked with choosing if Jhuti should be dismissed or not. She had been signed off work with stress and did not have the opportunity to put forward her version of events to the decision maker. Based solely on the evidence of the line manager it was decided that Jhuti would be dismissed.

The Supreme Court ruled that the dismissal was unfair.

Although the decision to dismiss her was not based on her having made protected disclosures against the company’s procedures, it was based on false evidence put forward by her line manager who had took offence at her making those disclosures.

 In his ruling, Lord Wilson said: “If a person in the hierarchy of responsibility above the employee determines that she should be dismissed for a reason but hides it behind an invented reason which the decision-maker adopts, the reason for the dismissal is the hidden reason rather than the invented reason.”

The level of compensation for Jhuti will be decided at a later hearing.

Please contact Simran Lalli if you would like more information about the issues raised in this article or any aspect of employment law.

UKSC 55

ROYAL MAIL LTD v KAMALJEET JHUTI (2019)

27/11/2019

LTL 27/11/2019 : [2019] 11 WLUK 423

Document No.: AC5009395#