Another unfair dismissal case arising from the COVID-19 pandemic reached the Employment Tribunal in Montanaro v Lansafe Ltd.
Mr Montanaro was employed by Lansafe Ltd from February 2020 as an IT Infrastructure Engineer. He provided services to Lansafe’s client, Boohoo. Mr Montanaro was not given an induction and did not have knowledge of Lansafe’s Handbook.
Mr Montanaro asked to take holiday to attend his sister’s wedding in Italy on 9 and 10 March 2020. He understood that his request had been granted and was due to return to London on 10 March. However, Italy went into a COVID-19 lockdown on 9 March. In turn, UK Government guidance was that travellers returning from Italy needed to self-isolate for 14 days.
Mr Montanaro remained in Italy and started working from home. Lansafe instructed Mr Montanaro to keep his laptop and mobile telephone on, and to wait for instructions on whether remote support for Boohoo would be adequate.
Lansafe did not provide further instructions. Instead, on 11 March 2020, Lansafe wrote to Mr Montanaro summarily dismissing him with effect from 6 March. The reason given for his dismissal was failure to follow “the process for holiday requests” and unauthorised absence. The letter was sent to Mr Montanaro’s address in London, despite Lansafe knowing that Mr Montanaro was in Italy. Mr Montanaro did not receive this letter and Boohoo confirmed that he could work remotely, so he continued working.
On 1 April 2020, Mr Montanaro received his payslip and P45 by e-mail.
He claimed that he had been automatically unfairly dismissed for health and safety reasons. Was the sole or principal reason for Mr Montanaro’s dismissal that he took appropriate steps to protect himself or others from danger which he reasonably believed to be serious and imminent?
The Employment Tribunal had “no doubt that the covid pandemic presented circumstances of danger as there was a risk of catching a contagious virus which could lead to serious illness and sometimes death”. The Tribunal was also satisfied that Mr Montanaro reasonably considered the “general condition of the COVID-19 virus to be a serious and imminent danger”.
The Tribunal considered that Mr Montanaro had taken appropriate steps, which “constituted communicating the danger to his employer and so far is he could explain the position as fully as was possible in the circumstances”.
The Tribunal concluded that the reason for Mr Montanaro’s dismissal was because he had “communicated the difficulties with covid and the reason why he proposed to work remotely in Italy until the circumstances changed”. Mr Montanaro succeeded in his claim of automatic unfair dismissal.
