This case involved a part-time cleaner who had a good sickness record for many years until he contracted a leukaemia-like blood disease. He found the illness difficult to deal with and asked to be accompanied by his father at meetings. Although management agreed the claimant’s father could attend a meeting with management some two-three years after the onset of the major period of absence, the relationship between the employee and the employer broke down to such an extent that the employee resigned and claimed constructive dismissal and redundancy pay.

The claimant lost the case. The EAT found that the respondent was right to stick to the procedures:

"At the core of this case was the refusal of the claimant to adhere to the norms of practice in the respondent and throughout industry, namely that at meetings with management, employees are entitled to be accompanied by a trade union representative or work colleague. The claimant’s insistence that he would only attend meetings accompanied by his father created serious difficulties in this case... the claimant displayed a certain intransigence with regard to facilitating meetings towards a solution to the problem."
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