A YMCA employee has been awarded over £22,000 for constructive dismissal after an inadequate investigation into her printer usage left her feeling “like a criminal”. Read on as we discuss what happened and the employment tribunal’s judgment.
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YMCA Employee Claims Constructive Dismissal
Charity Learns of High Printer Usage
Miss Abimbola Idowu began working as a night support manager for West London YMCA in 2015. Until the incidents that influenced her resignation, she had a clean disciplinary record and a positive relationship with Ms Prixades Chisakuta, who became her line manager in October 2020.
In March 2021, Ms Chisakuta was contacted about the sheer volume of stationary the office had been going through. She subsequently contacted a member of the IT department and requested printing logs for the relevant period. However, before receiving this information, she was again contacted in April with similar concerns regarding the previous three days.
Miss Abimbola Idowu’s Email Access is Restricted
Ms Chisakuta eventually received the printing logs on or around 19 April, leading to Miss Idowu’s email access being restricted. The log revealed that the YMCA employee had printed 505 sheets on 29 March and 254 on 12 April, totalling 759 pages. According to the report, this added up to around £120 in printing costs, primarily due to hundreds of pages printed in colour.
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When Miss Idowu found her access restricted, she realised it may have been due to the large number of pages she’d printed. As such, she rang her line manager on 20 April to see if this was the case and apologised, understanding that she’d made a mistake. Unfortunately, her line manager was out when she made the call, meaning the pair agreed to postpone their discussion.
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Two days later, the conversation about Miss Idowu’s restricted email access took place. Ms Chisakuta explained how the printing log highlighted her excessive printer usage and that this was a misuse of the charity’s resources, impacting its stationary budget. While she acknowledged the apology, she discussed how the incident must be handled in an informal meeting.
The Disciplinary Investigation Meeting
Consequently, Miss Idowu was invited to a disciplinary investigation meeting, which took place via teams on 26 April. The charity explained that the investigation was required because of allegations that she’d seriously misused and abused office resources.
During the meeting, the YMCA employee admitted to using the office printer but made several statements in her defence. She explained that she didn’t print in colour and had brought her own paper. Moreover, she claimed that she’d only printed past exam papers for her son’s GCSE study and hadn’t done this before. She only used the office printer because the Covid pandemic prevented her from using cafe and library printers, and her home one was broken.
A First Written Warning is Handed to YMCA Employee
Following the meeting, Ms Chisakuta undertook a further investigation. During this period, Miss Idowu was signed off unfit to work with gastroenteritis, which was allegedly caused by work-related stress. Once the investigation was complete, a disciplinary hearing occurred, and the outcome was provided in a letter on 2 July.
The letter confirmed that the YMCA employee was to receive a first written warning due to her excessive personal use of the office printer. This warning would remain on her file for 12 months, after which it would be disregarded.
Miss Idowu was advised that any recurrence could result in a final written warning or dismissal. She was also informed that if she wanted to appeal, she had five working days to do so in writing. However, despite not fully agreeing with the conclusions made in the investigation, she decided not to appeal.
Occupational Health Becomes Involved
At this time, Miss Idowu was still absent due to work-related stress. This triggered an absence monitoring meeting, which took place in July. During the meeting, Miss Idowu discussed how ‘false allegations’ surrounding the printing incident had negatively impacted her health. She also claimed that she felt targeted after providing supporting evidence for a colleague in their employment tribunal claim against the charity in March 2021.
Subsequently, Miss Idowu was referred to occupational health, which was delayed until September. This led to a stress risk assessment later that month, where she identified that she didn’t feel she could rely on her manager. She also discussed barriers that were affecting her return to work.
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Immediately after this meeting, a further review meeting took place, where a phased return to work commencing in October was agreed. Unfortunately, just four days before she was supposed to return, the YMCA employee hadn’t heard anything about her concerns from the previous meetings. As such, she contacted the charity, explaining that her concerns needed to be addressed before she returned.
YMCA Employee Raises a Grievance
Since Miss Idowu didn’t believe the charity had adequately addressed her concerns, she decided to raise a grievance. This was noted on 15 October when she explained how she felt she was being “treated like a criminal”. Unfortunately, she still hadn’t heard anything about her grievance by 27 October, so pointed this out in an email the same day.
Communication about the grievance remained poor, meaning a meeting was only arranged for November. Then, delays meant Miss Idowu only received the outcome of her grievance in December, learning that it hadn’t been upheld. She appealed this decision five days later, but following further delays, she learned this was also unsuccessful in February 2022.
Shortly after, an incident labelled the “last straw” occurred in a follow-up absence review meeting on 14 February. It was found that no investigation was made into whether Miss Idowu could override the printer settings, an allegation the charity continued to maintain.
Consequently, the YMCA employee resigned on 18 March, began ACAS early conciliation eight days later and commenced employment tribunal proceedings on 3 June. She claimed constructive unfair dismissal in breach of the Employment Rights Act 1996.
ET Finds Charity Breached Employment Rights Act 1996
Following proceedings, the employment tribunal found many failures on the part of West London YMCA. Firstly, despite Miss Idowu disputing the facts surrounding her misuse of office resources, the tribunal found the charity didn’t adequately investigate whether she’d printed in colour or how much paper had gone missing.
Furthermore, after the YMCA employee raised a grievance, claiming she felt she was being “treated like a criminal”, the tribunal determined this was dealt with poorly, too. They reasoned that the charity didn’t thoroughly examine whether she’d been targeted after providing evidence during a colleague’s claim.
As for the reasons for dismissal, this was disputed by the charity. They claimed Miss Idowu resigned because she knew she would be dismissed under their absence management procedure due to her extended leave. However, the tribunal disagreed.
With the lack of a proper investigation and poor handling of Miss Idowu’s grievance, the tribunal acknowledged the stress and anxiety this had caused. The tribunal concluded she had no choice but to resign, meaning her departure amounted to constructive unfair dismissal. As a result, the YMCA employee was awarded £22,748.34.
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