Assisting a school trust with inherited grievances from the previous employer

We recently advised a school trust in relation to grievances and long-standing issues with an employee.

The employee had, historically, been subjected to questionable processes as part of their employment with their previous employer which had led to a number of incidents over a few years.

The employee had been transferred to our client following a TUPE-transfer.  At this point, our client had the opportunity to consider removing him on the basis that he was no longer part and parcel of the undertaking.  However, they decided that they would accept his transfer to them and from there, there was a renewed relationship allowing the employee back into work and for the school to benefit from his expertise.

Despite the renewed and improved relationship with his new employer following the TUPE-transfer, the employee continued to complain about the issues that had arisen with his previous employer.

Consequently, our client got in touch, through a HR consultant, with Alex.  The query, was for the team to consider the historical grievances and issues to provide a report to the school as to:-

1. whether any of the previous incidents could give rise to liabilities on our client; and
2. what, if any, sums should be considered as part of a settlement to draw a line under the historical issues and retain the employee in employment.

To answer the client’s questions, we were required to review a large volume of documents which covered all of the employee’s complaints including allegations of:-

• whistleblowing and detriment arising from this;
• discrimination;
• bullying and harassment;
• failure to comply with the Data Protection Act 2018;
• failure to provide redress to grievances;
• breakdown of mutual trust and confidence; and
• failure to comply with the ACAS code of conduct on disciplinary procedures.

We were able to produce a comprehensive report outlining their thoughts on each of the allegations and the merits of any of them being pursued at tribunal.

From the report, the Trust obtained peace of mind as to what their risks were on the historical matters and use the report to reach an informed decision as to what steps they wanted to take to deal with the ongoing matters.