Salesman unfairly dismissed after lengthy misconduct investigation

A salesman has won an unfair dismissal claim after he was fired for making personal calls on the company phone and giving a customer his personal phone number, because his employer made no attempts to contact him during the disciplinary proceedings.

The case involved Mr C Hagan, who worked as a sales advisor for Sky Retail at a stand in Kingston upon Thames for over three years. In 2019, when his grandmother passed away, he made plans to travel to Ghana to attend her funeral. During the next couple of months, the Sky stand investigated Hagan over suspicions he was using the company phone to make calls to Ghana. He was given a final written warning after it was found he had made 97 calls to Ghana in a month, costing Sky £1,033. Hagan repaid the money but was involved in a second investigation after a colleague said that he spent long periods away from the stand and long periods on his mobile phone. The colleague also said he gave customers his personal number. Sky dismissed Hagan for breaching data protection after he admitted sending a text from his personal phone using a customer's details.

Disciplinary proceedings were delayed for various reasons and lasted from June to November. Hagan was dismissed at the end of the investigation.

While he had been away from work during the five-month period, Sky made no attempt to contact him about the investigation. Hagan made a claim for unfair dismissal and the Employment Tribunal ruled in his favour. Judge Swaffer said: "The period of five months without evidence of contact or attempted contact was surprising, and at odds with the requirement for an investigation to be reasonable.”

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