A Tube driver who opened the doors on the wrong side of the station was unfairly dismissed but will not receive compensation.
Sam Gritton was dismissed by Transport for London after she accidentally opened both sets of doors on a busy Central line train at Holborn station in January 2022.
The doors were open for three seconds and she failed to report the incident immediately, the tribunal heard.
A passenger reported the incident at the next stop, Tottenham Court Road, claiming he “could have fallen out of the train” if he had been leaning against the doors.
When the incident was investigated, Gritton submitted a handwritten account of events, where she said she had tried to close the sports but “nothing was happening on my CCTV” and she then asked passengers not to obstruct the doors.
Her letter also set out some personal issues she was dealing with, including the death of both her parents in a matter of weeks. She said that at the time of the incident she was preoccupied with these issues.
Unfair dismissal
She said: “I opened the doors and people got off – between 30 and 60 seconds, I forgot where I was for a moment. I was pushing the door close buttons but the doors were not shutting. I made a PA asking people to not obstruct the doors. I panicked, I opened the cab door and pushed the mushroom and my fingers were on the open buttons.
“I realised I was on the wrong side. I do not recall opening the doors, I shut my cab door and made a PA. I panicked a little bit – loads of things going on in my brain.”
Gritton was stood down from her usual duties while a further investigation took place. She visited her GP who told her that the work incident was “very likely due to extreme stress and anxiety”.
Later that month, she was invited to a disciplinary interview and in April was sent a letter informing her that she would be summarily dismissed. The disciplinary panel concluded that she had “suffered a loss of clear memory of the incident…this is highly concerning”.
It added that while she was dealing with a number of stress and mental health issues, the incident had been a severe breach of TfL’s rules and procedures. Together with her union rep she appealed the decision, arguing that there had been a “lack of leniency” considering the mitigating factors.
She launched an unfair dismissal claim on the grounds that five other Tube drivers had also accidentally opened the doors, but had been allowed to keep their jobs.
She also filed claims for disability discrimination, claiming that she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression and sex discrimination.
The tribunal upheld her claim of unfair dismissal due to flaws in the investigation process. It found that there had been some inadequacies relating to whether Gritton’s actions were related to a disability or ill health, or a mechanical issue with the door opening.
It also found that the comparators she presented for her claim of sex discrimination had “not been taken into account or genuinely considered”. Additionally, TfL had not followed up on an occupational health report commissioned in late 2021.
In judgment, Judge Beyzade said: “In conclusion, there was a potentially fair reason for dismissal (that is, conduct) and the respondent had a genuine and reasonable belief that the claimant had committed misconduct.
“However, although the respondent took steps to investigate what happened in relation to the incident that took place, the tribunal considers that the failures of the respondent to take the procedure beyond the fact-finding stage.”
These failures were “sufficiently serious to render the claimant’s dismissal unfair considering all the circumstances”, it added.
However, despite its findings around the nature of the investigation and dismissal, the tribunal ruled that no compensation should be given, due to the severity of the incident at the heart of the case.
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