Breakdown in relationship held a fair reason for dismissal

Thursday 30th January 2025

In Ms Anne-Marie Alexis v Westminster Drug Project, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) held that there was no alternative for the employer but to dismiss the employee due to a breakdown in trust and confidence, following numerous challenges made to management decisions and a failure to accept any outcome that did not meet the employee’s demands.

Facts 

The employer / Respondent (R) carried out a redundancy exercise whereby three roles, one of which being the Claimant’s (C), would be reduced to two. The three at-risk employees were all given the opportunity to interview for the two roles. C was not successful.

C had dyslexia and raised a grievance in respect of a number of adjustments she believed should have been made during the interview, despite having not requested them during the interview process. The redundancy process was put on hold as a result.

Despite the grievance outcome upholding the majority of C’s complaints, she appealed the decision. The appeal handler found mostly in her favour, however, C rejected this outcome, raising further lengthy complaints to R about the process, saying that she could not accept the decision, she was unsure how to proceed, and she felt that she was still being subject to discrimination.

As a result of her behaviour following the grievance process, C was invited to a meeting to discuss whether her employment was tenable. The decision was taken to dismiss her for ‘some other substantial reason’ which centred on her lack of confidence in R, and the subsequent breakdown of their working relationship.

Decision 

The Employment Tribunal (ET) rejected C’s claim for unfair dismissal, finding that the dismissal was fair because: C would not accept any outcome that did not meet her demands, she would continue to challenge management decisions and she had disrupted the restructuring process. All of these factors showed that the relationship between C and employer had broken down.

C’s appeal to the EAT, arguing that neither her length of service nor any alternative to dismissal had been considered, was rejected. The EAT found that her length of service was not relevant to the decision to dismiss and that, because the trust and confidence had broken down, there was no alternative to dismissal.

Comment 

This is a reminder to employers that ‘some other substantial reason’ can be a legitimate and fair reason for dismissal where the relationship between an employer and an employee breaks down. However, employers must ensure that they carefully consider the facts, that they have done all they reasonably can to maintain the relationship and have made adjustments where it is reasonable to do so.

Please contact a member of the employment team if you require any further guidance.