Worker sacked for insulting customer wins unfair dismissal payout

Year administrator who was sacked for insulting a customer in an email has won a payout of almost £5,500 after claiming unfair dismissal.

Meliesha Jones, who started working in a part-time role at Vale Curtains and Blinds in May 2021, was dismissed by her employer when she called a customer a t**t in an email and mistakenly sent it to him instead of a colleague.

In June 2023, Jones was sacked for gross misconduct, a week after sending the message meant for the company’s installations manager, Karl Gibbons.

The customer had been repeatedly complaining about the curtains he had ordered and wanted a refund on his purchase.

Jones wrote: “Hi Karl – Can you change this? …he’s a t**t so it doesn’t matter if you can’t.”

However, instead of clicking “forward” she hit the “reply” button in error, so the customer received the email rather than Mr Gibbons.

Jones then received a phone call from the customer’s wife, who asked: “Is there any reason why you called my husband a twat?”

Realizing the mistake, she was “shocked and upset” and profusely apologized, but the caller insisted on speaking to the manager, who also apologized and said Jones would be reprimanded.

The customer’s wife asked for compensation and was informed she would not be given the curtains for free. After threatening to publicize the incident in the press and on social media, she was told the matter would be investigated.

Jones offered to give the customer £500 as “a gesture of goodwill” and the company carried out an investigation, deciding to also hold a disciplinary hearing. However, no interviews were held with either Jones or the customer, no notes were made by the manager and no written documentation of the decision was produced.

The customer had again contacted the firm, making more threats to publicize the matter and leave a poor review of the business on Trustpilot. This prompted bosses to “get rid of” Jones, the tribunal heard.

A letter detailing the decision was later sent to the customer’s wife and Jones’ appeal against her dismissal on 14 grounds was denied.

However, while acknowledging that “the sending of the email was improper and blameworthy”, the tribunal found her dismissal to be unfair.

Employment Judge Akua Reindorf KC said: “The reason for the decision was that the customer had threatened to publicize the incident and to leave a poor review on Trustpilot.

“I am satisfied that if a fair procedure had been followed, there is no chance that the claimant would have been dismissed.”

Awarding Jones £5,485, she added: “The disciplinary process and the dismissal were a sham designed to placate the customer.”

Liz Stevens, employment lawyer at law firm, Birketts, said: “The decision highlights that even a very small employer with limited resources such as the one in this case is expected to follow a fair procedure before deciding to terminate an individual’s employment.

“In this case, there was a complete failure on the part of the employer to follow even a semblance of a fair procedure prior to reaching the decision to dismiss the claimant. It appears from the tribunal’s findings of fact that the company’s managing director had instructed the claimant’s manager to ‘get rid’ of the claimant, which the tribunal took as indicating that the decision to dismiss was a foregone conclusion prior to the disciplinary hearing. There had been no proper investigation into the allegations.

“The tribunal held that the procedure followed by the employer in this case was a ‘sham’ designed to placate the customer, and, had a fair procedure been followed, there was no chance that the claimant would have been dismissed.”

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