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Matthews v CGI IT UK Ltd

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Fairly dismissed for irretrievable relationship breakdown

Dismissal without warning

In Matthews v CGI IT UK Ltd 2024 , Mr Matthews (M), a director, was put at risk of redundancy by CGI whilst on sick leave. He raised a grievance and, after his grievance was only partly upheld on appeal, he wrote a confrontational letter accusing the appeal chair of incompetence and threatening to raise further grievances, make referrals to CGI’s internal ethics team and bring a tribunal claim. CGI then abandoned the redundancy process and discussions took place to agree on M’s return to work from sick leave. However, M repeatedly refused to make a choice between the options presented to him, which even included creating a new role for him in a different team, and he placed unacceptable conditions on his return to work. He also continued to threaten further grievances, complaints to the ethics team and legal action.

M’s most senior manager subsequently decided that the working relationship between M and CGI had irretrievably broken down and that the only remaining option was to dismiss him. M was dismissed without prior warning and he wasn’t offered a right of appeal.

M brought an unfair dismissal claim. He lost in the employment tribunal and so he appealed to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT).

Fair dismissal

Upholding the employment tribunal’s decision, the EAT ruled that the tribunal had correctly considered matters from CGI’s perspective at the time of dismissal and had concluded that CGI acted reasonably in deciding that the relationship of trust and confidence had broken down beyond repair. CGI had been genuine in its attempts to rebuild trust with M and to find a solution to enable him to remain employed and it had put significant and genuine effort into that but, after M rejected all options, there was then no viable alternative to dismissal. It was also reasonable for CGI to have considered that a warning or an appeal would be “futile” (see The next step ).

This was therefore one of those rare cases where a dismissal was fair even though there had been no formal procedure and no offer of an appeal.

Some other substantial reason

In very limited circumstances, it can be fair to dismiss an employee where there’s been an irretrievable breakdown in trust and confidence, as happened in this case. The potentially fair reason for dismissal would be “some other substantial reason” (SOSR), and you must then have acted reasonably in treating that as a sufficient reason for the employee’s dismissal.

Tip. You must first have taken “reasonable steps” to repair the relationship for the dismissal to be fair. Plus, you’re expected to go the extra mile here if you’re the one that’s to blame (or partly to blame) for the relationship breakdown.

Tip. Give a right of appeal against any dismissal, even if you think it’s futile.

Trap. In most circumstances, you won’t be able to fairly dismiss an employee just because you’ve fallen out with them or lost trust and confidence in them. The case will need to be an exceptional one.

For the Employment Appeal Tribunal’s ruling in this case, visit https://www.tips-and-advice.co.uk , Download Zone, year 26, issue 9.