Tribunal rules a security manager who 'did no tasks' whilst working from home 200 miles away at his parents' house in Cornwall was unfairly dismissed
Published Mar 16, 2025
A London based security manager sacked from his job for working from home over the summer at the home of his parents in Cornwall has won a claim for unfair dismissal despite being found to have completed no work.
Nick Kitaruth travelled 200 miles to visit his parents for four days from 14th to 17th August 2023 and was dismissed after he was called by his boss to attend an in-person meeting in London which he could not get to because he was in Cornwall.
Mr Kitaruth worked for OCS Security at a conference centre in Westminster and claimed at tribunal that he had obtained verbal permission from his manager to work from Cornwall. The manager claimed the arrangement had not been approved.
The judge found Mr Kitaruth had “misled” his manager by not doing any work. He also found that the employee believed he had been authorised to work from Cornwall and that it was likely to have been a miscommunication between him and his manager.
The employee won his case for unfair dismissal when the tribunal found the company's investigation had been unfair. The investigation did not interview the line manager before a decision to dismiss the employee was made. This meant that investigator missed an opportunity to establish just how informal the arrangement had been and how such a system had the potential for misunderstanding.
The tribunal found no reasonable employer would have failed to interview the line manager and for that reason the dismissal was deemed unfair. Furthermore the company took six weeks to investigate the matter and then took seven months to conduct the appeal.
However, as the tribunal found it doubtful that the employee did any work whilst in Cornwall it ruled that his compensation would be reduced by 50%.
The case provides another reminder to employers of the need to conduct a thorough investigation and to interview all parties connected to the allegations so a full picture can be established.