The ET found that the Claimant, a teacher, had been unfairly dismissed following an incident in which a young child had been pulled to the floor. This was because of procedural faults in not making reasonable attempts to ensure that the witnesses to the incident could attend in person at the disciplinary hearings. It went on to find that each of the awards for basic and contributory awards should be reduced by 100% because of the Claimant’s blameworthy conduct. The Claimant appealed.

The EAT dismissed the appeal. The ET had been obliged to make its own findings of fact when addressing contributory fault, and it was its own conclusions as to the evidence which were relevant. Although pithily stated in the concluding paragraph, all the relevant questions set out in the case law were addressed by the ET, and the final paragraph had to be read in conjunction with the remainder of the reasons. When procedural flaws which had been identified by the ET had no causal link to the dismissal there was no requirement as a matter of law that some compensation had to be paid. In such circumstances a 100% deduction was perfectly lawful.