The wholesale and delivery business, Booker, recently discovered the perils of deciding to take a stand on a specific incidence of workplace behaviour when your whole workforce behaves badly. In the recent case of Ogden v Booker Limited, Booker dismissed Mr Ogden for referring to a colleague as a “f**king mong”. The tribunal found that Mr Ogden had made this comment but, nevertheless, had been unfairly dismissed. In the circumstances, the comment was no worse than what others said in the workplace. The tribunal said that Mr Ogden had been “left without a chair when the music stopped”. The office he worked in was a “free-for-all”. The tribunal held that “this was a dysfunctional and seemingly toxic office, with many participants in this unprofessional behaviour including [Mr Ogden] and [his] victim”. Booker should have taken this into account when investigating the allegation against Mr Ogden. It was relevant to the fairness of dismissal as the sanction. This case serves as a reminder to employers that workplace standards must be consistently applied. Inconsistency risks singling out employees unfairly, as was the case for Mr Ogden.
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