Employee and Employer Disputes: A Case Study

The defence investigations we offer aren’t always intrinsically tied to matters pertaining to criminal charges.

One client engaged our services because they had been served with a notice of disciplinary with a view to dismissal by their employer for an act they did not commit.

The allegation was that at a specific date and time in a certain location the employee was said to have “acted in a manner not in keeping with the organisation’s code of conduct, testament to gross misconduct”. The employee themselves maintained that this was an allegation made by a disgruntled member of staff, unhappy with our client because they had spoken out against their conduct in a previous incident. They also said it was impossible to have occurred because they were in an entirely separate location at the time suggested, meeting with people who could verify this. The employer, however, maintained that they had statements from our client’s colleagues that refuted this.

Upon being engaged for service, we went to the privately-owned car park where the incident was alleged to have taken place and secured CCTV footage that showed our client’s work vehicle did not enter the location between the times given.

We followed this up by going to the location the client said they were at and took formal witness statements from people there who could confirm they met and spoke with the client on that day and at that time.

We put a detailed report together of our findings and our client asked for us to attend the disciplinary as a witness on their behalf to present the conclusions we had drawn. The employer refused to consider our report or allow us to speak at the disciplinary and the client was subsequently dismissed regardless.

They then took their employer to an employment tribunal where our report was placed within their submitted evidence bundle and we were called to give evidence under oath before the tribunal panel itself.

The employer was found guilty of unfair dismissal. The presiding judge spoke strongly against the employer for refusing to acknowledge the “undisputable evidence of innocence” they were afforded the opportunity to consider and our client was awarded substantial damages and loss of earnings as a result.

 

https://www.surmount-investigations.com/conflict-resolution/