A part-time administrator who was dismissed after mistakenly sending an insulting email to a customer has been awarded over £5,000 in compensation following a successful unfair dismissal claim.
Meliesha Jones, an employee at Vale Curtains and Blinds in Oxford since May 2021, accidentally forwarded an internal email intended for a colleague to a customer. The message, which referred to the customer as a “tw@”, was meant for the company’s installations manager, Karl Gibbons, but was mistakenly sent to the customer. The email was written in response to a complaint made by the customer about their order.
In the email, Ms Jones said, “Hi Karl – Can you change this… he’s a tw@ so it doesn’t matter if you can’t.” Unfortunately, this error led to significant fallout, resulting in her dismissal for gross misconduct in June 2023.
Complaint Spirals Out of Control
The situation escalated quickly when the customer’s wife, upon receiving the email, called Ms Jones and asked, “Is there any reason why you called my husband a tw@?” Ms Jones, shocked by her mistake, immediately apologized and even placed the call on speaker for a colleague to hear. However, the customer’s wife demanded to speak to the company’s manager, Jacqueline Smith.
Mrs. Smith later apologized on behalf of Ms Jones and assured the customer’s wife that she would be reprimanded for the incident. However, the customer’s wife pressed for compensation, requesting the curtains for free, but Mrs. Smith refused and said she would investigate the situation further.
Tribunal Rules in Favour of Jones
Despite Ms Jones offering £500 out of her own pocket as a goodwill gesture, the company launched a probe into the incident. The disciplinary process that followed led to her dismissal. However, an employment tribunal found that this process was unfair. Neither Ms Jones nor the customer was interviewed during the investigation, and no formal notes were taken by the manager.
The tribunal heard that the customer had threatened to publicize the incident on social media and in the press, leading the company to rush to appease the situation. Ms Jones was dismissed, with a letter sent to the customer’s wife stating that the company had taken action “following the disgraceful email that was sent to your husband in error.”
Employment Judge Akua Reindorf KC ruled that the dismissal was a “sham designed to placate the customer” and that Vale Curtains and Blinds had made the decision to sacrifice Ms Jones’s employment to avoid bad publicity. The judge stated that if a fair procedure had been followed, Ms Jones would not have been dismissed.
Judge Reindorf further criticized the company for its mishandling of the situation, noting that Ms Jones’s error, while improper, was “not out of the ordinary in the particular workplace” and that the mistaken email was “a genuine error, and one which is often made.”
Compensation Awarded
Ms Jones was awarded £5,484.74 in compensation for unfair dismissal. The tribunal’s decision highlights the importance of following fair and transparent procedures in disciplinary matters, as well as considering proportional responses to employee mistakes.
The Workers Union says…
“This case serves as a reminder that while mistakes happen in the workplace, employers must adhere to fair procedures and avoid disproportionate reactions. Rushing to protect a company’s reputation at the expense of an employee’s rights can lead to legal and financial consequences.”
