A company director has been awarded £15,000 in compensation after being told to ‘shut up’ in a meeting.
David Ashe worked as a director of operations at Claims Equilibrium Club, a claims assistance service for insurance brokers and their clients.
He had been headhunted for the role by Roger Topping, the managing director, and was being lined up as a potential successor to run the firm. Ashe had first worked for Topping between 2008 and 2012, when he had trained him as a loss adjuster.
The tribunal heard that an arrangement regarding the purchase of equity in the company was subject to satisfactory performance by Ashe. However, the offer was withdrawn and there was a breakdown in relationship between the two, and Ashe filed for constructive unfair dismissal.
Constructive dismissal
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The first year of Ashe’s employment as a director went smoothly, but soon cracks began to appear in the relationship between himself and Topping, who claimed Ashe was not building connections with brokers as he had been out of the country for some years.
After multiple meetings with brokers that did not lead to any business, the relationship continued to deteriorate. Ashe told the tribunal that he considered Topping to be “stuck in his ways” and that there was a lack of work being fed to him or oversight of others’ work.
Responding to an email exchange about the shortcomings of his team, Ashe admitted he was “growing more and more frustrated with our relationship”, adding that “I am not the 22-year-old boy that worked for you 16 years ago… I don’t think you intentionally intend to belittle me but this needs to change”.
At a later meeting, Topping and Ashe met to discuss the previous commitment to sell 50% of equity in the business to Ashe within five years for a set sum. Topping had later offered to sell Ashe the entire company, but Ashe did not want this.
Topping said that the business required expansion and that Ashe would need to show leadership to take over the running of the business. However, he claimed Ashe’s fee earnings had been “disappointingly low” and he had no prospect of gaining a bonus in his second year at the firm.
Topping agreed that Ashe could stay on to do support adjuster work on an agreed salary, and asked whether he wished to continue in employment. He confirmed that he could not see the current relationship improving and there was no prospect of the planned partnership and equity sale.
Grievance
Ashe continued in his role for a number of weeks and then raised a grievance in June 2024, citing the removal of the purchase agreement, which had been fundamental in his decision to join the company.
He also argued that he had not been given the full picture in the proposal document given to him before he joined the company, and that his contract had been altered to include his car allowance as salary.
Furthermore, he complained of “general hostility towards him, which was nothing short of bullying and intimidation and which could not continue if he was to remain with the company”.
Ashe told the tribunal about fortnightly staff meetings on Teams where topping had shouted at him to “shut up”, something he felt was inappropriate between senior staff.
Topping called in a HR consultant to assist with the grievance. Topping did not deny telling his colleague to shut up, and the grievance was partially upheld.
Sick leave
Ashe then went on sick leave, finally resigning in September 2024, claiming breach of contract. Topping claimed that Ashe had broken the contract by not meeting the targets they discussed.
Employment judge Lucy Wiseman ruled that Ashe had been constructively unfairly dismissed.
She said: “The Tribunal was satisfied that Mr Topping’s conduct was such that, judged reasonably and sensibly, [Ashe] could not be expected to put up with it.”
She said the tribunal had reached this conclusion “because of the cumulative effect of the withdrawal of the share purchase opportunity; the breakdown in the relationship…and Mr Topping undermining the claimant in front of other staff by telling him to “shut up” during a staff meeting.”
The company must now pay Ashe compensation of £14,568, reducing the maximum award by 50% as it felt “the claimant was 50% responsible for the breakdown in the relationship”.
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