University professor receives significant compensation after unfair dismissal

One of the country’s largest university groups has been ordered to pay more than £50,000 in compensation to a former sports lecturer over his unfair dismissal.

Michael Barbrook, a former tourism teacher and then sports course leader at Havering Sixth Form College, part of New City College, won his case after the college was found guilty of improper dismissal and appeal in 2021.

According to court documents, a judge suggested that New City College was “creating a case tailored to the desired outcome rather than reviewing the evidence and allegations in a completely impartial manner.”

The employment tribunal unanimously ruled that Michael Barbrook should receive £53,256.95 in compensation for unfair dismissal, plus £174.95 in compensation for preparing the case while he was not legally represented.

The allegations

Barbrook joined Havering Sixth Form College in 1997 and had 23 years of an “unblemished” disciplinary record. The college merged with New City College in 2019.

But he was sacked without notice for “gross misconduct” in January 2021 after New City College claimed he canceled morning coaching sessions, falsified register notes, left work early without permission and had not provided students with the teaching hours allocated to them in October 2020. challenged the decision but failed on appeal.

The court heard of an all-staff briefing from September 2020 about the difficult conditions FE staff were working in during the pandemic, ahead of the new academic year. New City College CEO Gerry McDonald told staff the management team was “keen to avoid” moving immediately to online learning.

“Subject to the need to provide coverage if necessary, teachers will only need to be on campus when actually teaching if they choose to conduct correction and preparation at home,” said McDonalds.

That month, Barbrook’s request to work from home “as sports course students had been asked to work from home due to five positive Covid 19 incidents” was refused. The grievance officer responsible for Barbrook’s subsequent complaint admitted that the request was reasonable and that “the college could have done more.”

Barbrook was suspended on full pay in November 2020 and summoned to a disciplinary hearing to hear that he had “falsified logbook notes, including those relating to training sessions on a Friday morning”.

“It is alleged that your alleged actions do not meet our expectations of good conduct from a college employee and violate the trust that is at the heart of any employment relationship,” the college added.

The court heard the college was aware of an informal practice whereby teachers started the last lesson of the day during the lunch break in advance “in order to arrange for an earlier finish”.

Barbrook worked at the college in Hornchurch, but lived in Caerphilly, south Wales, three hours away. He had a long-standing agreement with the college that his “off-site time” would be scheduled on a Friday afternoon so he could leave early to drive home.

“No chance” of rejection of the fair procedure adopted

The court also heard that then-deputy chief executive Suri Araniyasundaran, who fired the teacher, had been “completely incurious” in his approach to Barbrook’s allegations.

Araniyasundaran left New City College in March 2023, three months before the Barbook hearings began.

Araniyasundaran admitted that he had not seen Barbrook’s personnel file, his disciplinary file or the minutes of the meeting with students that confirmed the end of the two sports classes before dismissing Barbrook.

Nor had he seen the minutes of the fact-finding meeting with Barbrook’s supervisor, during which she verbally gave him permission to move forward with his lesson.

A call was overseen by McDonald, who, as well as leading New City College as group CEO, is chair of the Association of Colleges’ employment policy group.

The judge said McDonald had a “very superficial understanding” of the allegations of misconduct and the court was “surprised” to see the appeal outcome letter was only one page and one line.

The court concluded: “We are satisfied that (the college’s) decision to terminate (and uphold that decision) and the standards by which those decisions were made exceeded the range of responses open to a reasonable employer of similar size and with similar administrative resources.

He added: “Had a fair procedure been adopted and the referring officer (Araniyasundaran) or appeals officer (McDonald) had fairly considered the custom and practice of the college and the mitigating evidence, there was no way (Barbrook) would have been voted out. At most he would have received a warning, but he probably would have received training on the revised practices.

The court dismissed Barbrook’s claim of discrimination based on anxiety and depression.

New City College declined to comment.