Correspondence from Permanent Secretary,
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Johnston McNeill Employment Tribunal Application
1. On 5 March 2007, the Department
received a copy of the Notice Of Claim from the Reading Employment
Tribunal. Johnston McNeill is claiming:
— Failure to follow the statutory dismissal
procedures.
— Failure to provide written reasons
for the dismissal.
— Dismissal due to the claimant making
qualifying disclosures that the RPA would not be able to meet
its statutory obligations.
— failure to pay 18.5% of
salary in respect of performance related pay
— failure to award pay increase
of 2.5-3%.
— Breach of Working Time Regulations:
— failure to pay untaken
holiday pay amounting to 31days
2. Defra has denied that the dismissal itself
was unfair and:
(a) It is denied that the reason for the
dismissal was the making of a protected disclosure.
(b) Written reasons for the dismissal were
given in the dismissal letter.
(c) There is no breach of contract as he
failed to meet critical performance targets and he had no contractual
entitlement to any pay increase.
(d) There is no breach of the Working Time
Regulations as he was paid in lieu of untaken holiday within the
holiday year starting on 1st September 2006 and the termination
of his employment on 1 December 2006.
3. The Grounds of Resistance to this claim
were sent to the Employment Tribunal on 28 March, the same
day as the Civil Service Appeal Board (CSAB) hearing, with a request
that the Tribunal hearing be stayed until the decision of the
CSAB had been received. The hearing was stayed until 29 June
and the CSAB decision was issued on 14 June.
4. The CSAB concluded that there had been
reasonable grounds for the Department to have concluded that they
had lost confidence and trust in Mr McNeill's competence, but
that Defra had failed to adhere to formal processes, and in particular
had not provided an opportunity for appeal to an independent adjudicator.
The CSAB therefore require Defra to pay compensation—but
a reduced compensation award to reflect their conclusions that
Mr McNeil had contributed to his own dismissal.
5. The Employment Tribunal was advised on
21 June that the decision of the CSAB had been received,
and the tribunal asked Mr Johnston McNeill to write to them (by
10 July) to confirm whether he wished the case to proceed
to listing for a Hearing date.
6. In the light of their conclusions, the
CSAB wrote on 4 July to confirm that the Department should
award Mr McNeill a compensation figure of £60,792.50 (reduced
by 50% to reflect the contribution Mr McNeil made to his own dismissal).
9 July 2006
In response to Richard Bacon's request for a
newly formatted set of figures, please find a list of all payments
made to Johnston McNeill below. It maybe helpful to remind you
of when we sent this information.
— On 10 January 2007, supplementary
evidence from the PAC hearing on 30 October 2006 was provided
(including information on the basic salary during suspension £80,644;
6 months pay in lieu of notice £56,925 and actuarially reduced
pension of £12,413 per annum plus lump sum £42, 815).
— On 25 June 2007, information was
provided to the PAC on the employer's NI contributions from 16
March to 1 December 2006, amounting to £9,420.92.
— On 6 July 2007, a briefing was provided
for the PAC meeting on 9 July 2007 which referred to the CSAB
compensation figure of £60,792.50.
— On 10 July 2007, background information
was provided on the compensation awarded by the CSAB.
It is worth noting that even if we had introduced
poor performance proceedings immediately in March 2006, we would
still have needed to make payment in lieu of notice amounting
to £60,435.
As a note on the figures below, you will see
that this includes a separate figure for his contractual `Additional
Housing Allowance', and slightly revised pension figures which
have been recently updated by PPPA.
Contractual payments/costs
| Basic salary during suspension (16 March—1 December)
| £80,644 |
| Additional Housing Cost Allowance during suspension
| £4,972 |
| Employers NI contribution during suspension
| £9,421 |
| Annual leave accrued 1 September—1 December (7.5 days)
| £2,437 |
| Six months pay in lieu of notice | £56,925
|
| Six months in lieu of Additional Housing Cost Allowance
| £3,510 |
| TOTAL | £157,909
|
| Compensation payments awarded by CSAB
Basic award reduced by 50% for contribution to dismissal
| £2,392.50 |
| Loss of future earnings (maximum ET award) |
£58,400 |
| TOTAL | £60,792.50
|
Pension payment
Johnston McNeill has the option of drawing his accrued pension
early but it would actuarially reduced to reflect the longer period
over which it would be payable. He has not yet indicated any intention
to draw this pension early.
As at 2 December this actuarially reduced pension amounted
to £12,628.50 pa and the pension lump sum amounted to £44,387.30.
19 July 2007
Following my letter of 19 July and earlier correspondence
which set details of payments made to Johnston McNeill, you have
asked me to write once more to confirm the total of the payments
made as set out in that letter.
I can confirm that since 16 March 2006, he has received the
following payments:
— £90,474—in salary costs;
— £60,435—payment in lieu of notice;
— £60,792.50—compensation payment awarded
by the CSAB.
Therefore, the total amounts to £218,701.50.
To note that the pension lump sum of £44,387.30 should
not be included in the payment figure, since he would have been
entitled to this whether past or future, or in whatever circumstances
he has left the Department as a result of contributions made under
the Civil Service Pension Scheme. Our actions since 16 March would
not have made any difference to this sum.
26 July 2007
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