The Claimant was dismissed from his senior position in the Respondent company following an outburst towards a colleague that amounted to bullying. He appealed against his dismissal on the basis that (1) the decision was out of proportion to the seriousness of the incident, (2) he had accepted that his conduct was inappropriate and he was now receiving help for the stress and anxiety, and (3) he had not been given sufficient credit for 27 years of loyal service. The ET found that the dismissal was unfair and outside the band of reasonable responses, and that there was no contributory fault on the part of the Claimant.

The EAT held that the ET was entitled to find that the dismissal was unfair for all the reasons that it listed, and that the ET, having heard all the evidence and seen the witnesses give their evidence and in the exercise of its wide discretion, was entitled to conclude that it would not be just and equitable to find contributory fault.