Dismissal Of Employee Who Brought Numerous "Frivolous And Vexatious" Grievances Was Fair

• Published date: 01 February 2022
• Subject Matter: Employment and HR, Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration, Unfair/ Wrongful Dismissal, Employment Litigation/ Tribunals, Professional Negligence
• Law Firm: Brahams Dutt Badrick French LLP
• Author: Mr James Hockley

In the case of Hope v British Medical Association the Employment Appeal Tribunal upheld a decision that it had been fair to dismiss an employee who raised multiple informal grievances and refused to progress them or attend a grievance hearing.

What happened in this case?

The claimant was employed by the British Medical Association between June 2014 and May 2019. By February 2019, he had raised around seven grievances. The claimant said he wished to discuss these grievances informally with his line manager. However, as the grievances related to more senior managers, his line manager did not have authority to resolve the issues raised.

The claimant refused to progress any of the grievances to a formal stage. Instead, he sought to reserve the right to do so and did not withdraw the grievances. However, the employer treated the complaints as formal grievances and a grievance hearing was scheduled for 21 March 2019. The claimant refused to attend despite being informed that attendance was a reasonable management instruction. He was also told that if he persisted with filing grievances this may be treated as a disciplinary issue.

Eventually, he was invited to attend a disciplinary hearing in April 2019 to respond to three allegations made against him. These were that:

• he had submitted numerous, frivolous grievances against two senior managers;
• he had failed to follow a reasonable management instruction to attend the grievance hearing; and
• there had been a fundamental breakdown of the working relationship between him and senior management.

The disciplinary chair concluded that each of the allegations was made out and the claimant was dismissed for gross misconduct. He brought a claim for unfair dismissal. The Employment Tribunal found that the dismissal was fair. The claimant appealed to the EAT.

What did the EAT decide?

The claimant argued that the Employment Tribunal had failed to consider whether the alleged misconduct was capable of amounting to gross misconduct in the contractual sense. He suggested that the Tribunal should have considered whether his conduct amounted to either a "deliberate and wilful contradiction of the contractual terms" or "very considerable negligence". He also argued that the Tribunal's decision was perverse, and his conduct did not justify dismissal.

The EAT held that the employer had not raised "contractual gross misconduct" as a reason for the dismissal and...