Worker accused of trying to ruin company wins dismissal case

An employee at Lean Education and Development (LED) training firm won £11,885.62 for her unfair dismissal claim after she was accused of making deliberate mistakes to financially ruin her employer.

Tracie Shearwood worked for LED for several years and after numerous promotions she held the role of head of compliance. In April 2018, her managing director, Maxine Jones told Ms Shearwood she would be moving her out of compliance with an aim to recruit very experienced people to rebuild the company’s reputation. Ms Shearwood was extremely upset but continued at LED in her new role which she saw as a demotion.  

LED brought in a new head of compliance to help with an upcoming audit. The director told staff if the company failed the audit and had to pay £750,000, they would have to close the business, and that there would be a zero-tolerance approach to compliance errors. 

Following this, Ms Shearwood was told that she had printed some documents double sided, which could be a breach of the GDPR.

She was then sent an email that said her errors seemed to “fly in the face” of what the director had warned about with the audit. She began taking steps to have Ms Shearwood suspended.

However, Ms Shearwood filed a grievance with a string of complaints and they then decided to revoke the disciplinary hearing and suspension. 

In another incident, Ms Jones became angry with Ms Shearwood and two colleagues for going on a lunch break together despite being in the same department. Ms Shearwood and her colleagues said that there was no staggered lunch policy in place. Ms Shearwood’s suspension was reinstated and at her disciplinary hearing she was told that her actions such as the GDPR breach and various filing mistakes, and the breakdown of trust after she filed a grievance – amounted to gross misconduct and was dismissed.

The case was heard before the Employment Tribunal and employment Judge Jones said it was seldom fair for an employer to take offence when an employee has a grievance criticising management action towards them. It was found there was not a “grave dereliction of duty” by Ms Shearwood to justify dismissal for gross misconduct, nor had she “deliberately failed” to do her work “to the best of her ability”. It found that Ms Shearwood was a “diligent member of staff”. 

This case highlights that employers need to be careful when dismissing an employee, and the facts of each case must be considered carefully. While negligence can be a form of gross misconduct, it’s unlikely to justify dismissal on facts such as these, where an employee was suddenly given a new role, her errors were linked to wider operational problems and the dismissal was partly motivated by a grievance and taking a lunch break. 

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