Judgment approved by the court
45.
Vaultex UK Ltd v Bialas
The Wikipedia post and figurine were not put before the employer in the internal process or
before the tribunal at its hearing; and therefore we do not need to say much about them. The employer
had to take its decision based on the material that was before it at the time; and the tribunal had to do the
same thing, including, in relation to substantive fairness, to decide the matter by reference to the
evidence it had about what material was before the employer itself.
46.
We therefore need express no view on this Wikipedia entry, though we should note that Ms
Clarke drew attention to the fact that it also states that the figurines have been criticised by some as
antisemitic and refers to a Polish city having recently banned them. Further, Mr Babbage plainly
regarded the claimant’s post as racist, and the tribunal was plainly entitled to regard that as a reasonable
view, as such, by virtue of the content being antisemitic and in its references to black men and to
Mexicans, all for the reasons that the tribunal explained in its decision.
47.
We will come presently to the tribunal’s approach to the matter of the mitigation which the
claimant put forward, including as to his own understanding or appreciation of such matters.
48.
We turn then to our conclusions with respect to Ms Clarke’s critique of the tribunal’s reasons.
49.
As to her criticism of what the tribunal said at [57], the final sentence does not say that a
reasonable employer “would” have imposed a lesser sanction than dismissal. It was another tribunal’s
reference to what a reasonable employer “would” have done, that was said in both Swift and in Gahir to
betray an erroneous approach. At [57] of the decision in this case, however, the tribunal referred to
“any” reasonable employer, following on from a reference to the band of reasonable responses and a
statement that no reasonable employer would have decided to dismiss. Overall, this reads as a closing
restatement by a tribunal keen to emphasise that it has not forgotten the correct test; and this paragraph
does not, as such, betray an error on its part.
© EAT 2024
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[2024] EAT 19