A ruling by the Employment Tribunal has found that Rochdale-based UK broadband ISP Zen Internet acted “unfairly” when they dismissed former CEO, Paul Stobart, in March 2023. The move was followed by Zen’s original CEO and Founder, Richard Tang, being re-appointed as CEO after stepping aside in 2018.
Just to recap. Stobart was promoted from the position of Chairman to CEO in August 2018 (here), which occurred shortly after the introduction of a new business plan that ambitiously aimed for the venerable ISP to become a £100m business within 3 years and a £250m one within 10 years.
Nevertheless, there was a dash of surprise when, during March 2023 (here), the ISP suddenly announced that Stobart would retire at the end of that same month – after 5 years in the position – and swap the role of CEO back to Richard Tang. At the time, this all seemed very amicable, with Zen heaping praise on the then outgoing CEO. But behind closed doors, there was a fair bit of drama.
Following his dismissal on 31st March 2023, Stobart is said to have presented a claim form to the Tribunal on 21st June 2023 – this was following a period of early conciliation from 11th April to 23rd May 2023. The former CEO raised a single complaint of unfair dismissal contrary to Part X Employment Rights Act 1996.
Overall, there was a great deal of evidence for the judge to consider, and we don’t plan to dive into the drama that it covers, which will be familiar to anybody who has run a modest sized business. But according to the judgement of an Employment Tribunal, Stobart ended up being “unfairly dismissed” because Zen, after raising some “potentially fair” concerns with his performance and the company’s “profitability” (i.e. not meeting expectations), ultimately “failed to follow a fair procedure“.
Judge’s Conclusion
Accordingly, my finding in this case is that Mr Stobart as claimant was unfairly dismissed by the respondent Zen Internet Limited in that although the potentially fair reason of capability was correctly raised by the respondent, they rendered the dismissal unfair by failing to follow a fair procedure.
However, the dismissal would have been fairly dismissed by no later than 31 May 2023 had a fair process been applied by reason of the claimant’s capability arising from his poor performance.
The full judgement is well worth a read because it’s not often that we get to see such a detailed insight into the internal dramas of a key UK broadband ISP, particularly when it comes to the most senior levels of management. However, the remedy for this will ultimately still need to be considered at a separate hearing on a date to be confirmed in the Manchester Employment Tribunal. Zen Internet has declined to comment.