Accidentally emailing 180 people is a mistake ‘anyone could make'
Accidentally emailing 180 people is a mistake 'anyone could have made', an employment judge has ruled.
Thomas Batsford, a Wetherspoons kitchen worker, mistakenly sent an early morning email complaining about his 'bully' boss to an entire region, instead of his regional manager.
He was fired for 'disseminating defamatory material' but has now won a £12,502 payout after a judge ruled he was unfairly dismissed.
The message contained 'serious allegations' about his boss and another female colleague, who he accused of sending him 'unprofessional' WhatsApp messages.
Realising his error, Mr Batsford immediately asked for it to be deleted, the tribunal was told. But by then, it had been sent to 180 other Wetherspoons in the area.
An employment judge said it was 'a mistake that any employee might have reasonably made'.
'Mistreated and bullied'
The tribunal in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, heard that Mr Batsford worked as a kitchen shift leader at the The Swan & Angel, a Wetherspoons pub in St Ives, Cambridgeshire from September 2018.
A new pub manager, Theresa Temperley, took over in December 2022 after the previous manager Michael Loveridge left the role.
The tribunal found that Miss Temperley took 'something of a new broom approach' to management, making rapid changes to processes.
Mr Batsford did not come in to work one day in April 2023 and lied about the reason when he called in to explain his absence, the hearing was told.
When questioned by Miss Temperley, he admitted he felt he was being ' mistreated and bullied ' by the manager and another colleague, Jess Lent.
'Reduced to tears'
The tribunal heard he 'had been reduced to tears by the treatment he had received' the day before and 'couldn't face coming into work the following day'.
Miss Temperley had raised some issues she had with his work including the cleaning of the canopy in the kitchen.
He claimed he worked 'the way he had been trained under Michael Loveridge previously'.
Miss Temperley suspended Mr Batsford and planned a disciplinary hearing about the issues in May.
But before it was held, Mr Batsford sent a grievance email complaining about how he'd been treated by the two women, making reference to WhatsApp messages 'of a highly unprofessional nature'.
However, it went to the wrong email address.
'Could have happened to anyone'
'Unfortunately, [Mr Batsford] sent the email to Jedd Murphy, who is a regional manager but also to the entire pub region that he manages rather than just to Jedd Murphy himself,' the tribunal heard.
But the judge ruled the mistake could have happened to anyone.
'He was using a personal device as he was at home having been suspended. He used the email that the search threw up and, of course, it turned out to be the email for the whole region,' it added.
Wetherspoons continued with the disciplinary process, including new accusations that he had breached the company's internet, email and data policies at a rescheduled hearing where he was sacked without notice.
Bosses 'treated him poorly'
At the hearing, the investigating officer admitted his mind was 'already made up' as Mr Batsford had 'disseminated defamatory material about other members of staff and that this amounted to a breach of those policies'.
Employment Judge Kevin Palmer concluded that Mr Batsford's dismissal was unfair, finding that the two women had 'animus against him and treated him poorly compared to others'.
The judge also said Wetherspoons had 'failed to investigate issues properly'.
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