Mullen v Greater Glasgow Health Board

In the case of Mullen v Greater Glasgow Health Board, the Court ruled that an experienced NHS worker who admitted his threatening and verbally aggressive behaviour towards his colleague had been unfairly dismissed

The Claimant, Mr Mullen (“M”), had worked for NHS Greater Glasgow Health Board since 2002 having worked his way up to a supervisory position.  However, on 11 March 2021, he had a verbal altercation with an assistant technician that he thought had used his cup following some leftover liquid spilling out of it when M used it.

A complaint was made by the assistant technician to an assistant manager that M had sworn at him and made repeated threats. M’s manager queried the incident with M without informing him of the allegations that had been made against him. M admitted that he wanted to “rip his f***ing beard off his f***ing face”. He is also alleged to have stated that he would “get him outside” and told the assistant technician that he knew where his car was parked.

On 17 March 2021, M’s manager obtained a statement from M regarding the incident where M stated that he was angry and disappointed that someone had used his cup, leftover liquid had spilled on him, and he was concerned about the health and safety aspects of this having previously contracted Covid-19.

Following a five-month investigation, M was dismissed without notice at the end of October 2021 on the grounds of gross misconduct. He therefore issued a claim for unfair dismissal and an employment tribunal found that:

1. There was a lack of transparency with regards to which policy was being followed as well as a breach of the grievance and bullying and harassment policies. Both policies stated that concerns must be raised at the earliest opportunity and M was unaware of the allegations made against him.
2. The process had taken an unreasonable length of time which was a further breach of policy.
3. Overall, there were procedural defects in the dismissal and the impact of this resulted in the whole process becoming unfair.

Employers will, however, sigh slightly with relief as M’s compensation was significantly reduced to around £9,000 due to his behaviour and the impact of this on his colleague.

For a dismissal to be fair, there must be a potentially fair reason for the dismissal (misconduct in this case) and a fair and transparent process must be followed. The dismissal must also be within the range of reasonable responses i.e., proportionate to what has happened.

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