Former town council chief loses claim for unfair dismissal

Tribunal rules that Graham Hunt took "too long" to resign

THE former chief executive of Newbury Town Council has lost his case for unfair dismissal against his previous employer.

Graham Hunt told an employment tribunal that he resigned in October 2014 because he felt the organisation didn’t do enough to help protect him from being “bullied and intimidated”.

Representing himself at the two-day hearing in June, Mr Hunt claimed the council failed to follow the correct processes after he complained about the conduct of its then deputy leader Ruwan Uduwerage-Perera.

Mr Hunt, who was claiming unfair constructive dismissal for breach of contract, told the tribunal that Mr Uduwerage-Perera had “launched an attack on him” on May 29, 2014, after learning of the council’s failure to trigger an insurance claim in its legal case with Parkway developer Costain.

He said that Mr Uduwerage-Perera’s behaviour had been in breach of the council’s dignity at work policy and that the council, as a statutory body, was therefore liable for breach of contract.

Mr Uduwerage-Perera was not asked to give evidence at the tribunal and afterwards hit back at the allegations made against him, insisting that he was “neither a bully nor an intimidator”.

In a 24-page judgement, employment judge Andrew Gumbiti-Zimuto ruled that no breach of contract had occurred and that the town council had correctly acted in accordance with its grievance procedures.

He added that Mr Hunt had taken “too long” to resign after the outcome of the grievance and had therefore affirmed his contract of employment.

In the judgement, judge Gumbiti-Zimuto said: “A failure to resign, in my view, leads to a conclusion that the claimant has lost the right to claim constructive dismissal arising from the incident on May 29, 2014. He has waited too long.

“My conclusion is that the claimant (Mr Hunt) was not dismissed.

“The claimant’s complaint of unfair dismissal is not well founded and is dismissed.”

Judge Gumbiti-Zimuto also said that the town council had been “supportive of the claimant from the incident to his resignation” and that there was “no fundamental breach of contract in the way that the respondent dealt with the incident once the grievance was made by the claimant”.

Mr Hunt was signed off on sick leave with work-related stress in June 2014 and resigned in October 2, 2014.

Following the judgement, the leader of Newbury Town Council, David Goff, said: “Newbury Town Council is pleased that an employment tribunal has dismissed the claim of its former chief executive that he was unfairly dismissed.

“The tribunal found that the council was supportive of Mr Hunt from the time of the incident of which he complained until his resignation.

“The judgement also found that the actions of the leader of the council (then councillor Julian Swift-Hook) were reasonable and that he acted in good faith.

“The council welcomes the outcome and wishes Mr Hunt well in his future career.”

Reacting to the judgement, Mr Hunt said: “I am very disappointed to have lost my claim for unfair constructive dismissal on a timing technicality.

“I was a very successful chief executive officer of Newbury Town Council for more than 10 years.

“I raised a grievance in June 2014 which was upheld in August 2014.

“I gave the town council a reasonable amount of time to implement the required corrective actions.

“When they had not been fully implemented by October 2014, I had no choice but to resign.

“The length of time taken before my ultimate resignation was too long in employment tribunal terms for my claim of unfair constructive dismissal to be upheld.”