Mr Jugdeep Singh Johal V Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust

Tribunal awards £118k after being “at a loss to understand… deeply flawed” investigation

An Employment Tribunal has found that Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust unfairly dismissed Jugdeep Johal, its Interim Joint Director of Estates and Facilities, after 17 years of unblemished service.

Mr Johal had made use of manufacturer demonstration vehicles, arranged for him by a colleague after his own car was written off in a serious road traffic accident in December 2022, while he waited for a replacement salary sacrifice car. His use of the vehicles was open, several senior managers including three successive chief executives knew about it and signed off his mileage claims without objection, and no one raised any concern with him at the time. Following an anonymous letter of complaint some nine months later, the Trust investigated, disciplined and summarily dismissed him for gross misconduct.
 
The Tribunal was highly critical of how that process was run. It found:

– the investigation “deeply flawed” and concerned only with establishing wrongdoing rather than testing the allegation fairly.
– the investigating officer was junior to Mr Johal and reported directly to the case manager, in breach of the Trust’s own disciplinary policy.
– the disciplinary chair was Mr Johal’s peer and, under his contract of employment, had no authority to dismiss him at all, only the chief executive held that power.
– the Trust’s own “Just and Learning Framework” was not applied at any stage.
– the disciplinary panel found, in the same decision, both that Mr Johal had not sought to enrich himself or use his position for personal gain, and that he had used his position to obtain personal gain, a conclusion the Tribunal said it was “at a loss to understand.”
 
The Tribunal found that no reasonable employer would have subjected Mr Johal to disciplinary proceedings at all, let alone dismissed him.

By consent, the Tribunal awarded Mr Johal £118,888.50.
 
Lessons:

– Apply your policy, or at least natural justice, about who you appoint as the investigator and the decision maker, not to who is available.
– Investigation does not mean proving wrong doing. It means an open fair process of establishing what happened.
– Be alive to context. Conduct that was genuine, longstanding, open and condoned by multiple senior managers is a world away from concealment or dishonesty, and the sanction should reflect that difference.

Mr Jugdeep Singh Johal V Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust: 2600557/2024

Judgment: https://lnkd.in/e5cQ4_yM