A senior NHS communications manager has been awarded nearly £13,000 for unfair dismissal after accidentally displaying pornographic images on his phone to a junior colleague.
Jon Fisher, who had worked for University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust since 2011, was showing a colleague a video of his daughter on his phone when she noticed thumbnail images of explicit content on the screen. The incident occurred in a small shared office.
Following the incident on July 17, 2023, Fisher wrote to his colleague to apologize, describing it as a "very regrettable accident" and stating he had no intention of her seeing the material. He expressed confusion about how it appeared on his screen and assured her he would have stopped immediately had he noticed.
The junior colleague, who was reportedly upset, later lodged a complaint with the Associate Director of Communications, Jamie Donald. She alleged that she had been avoiding Fisher since the incident. According to a statement from Donald, she was "very upset."
In October 2023, the junior colleague went on sick leave, which she attributed to Fisher's alleged "poor behaviour and incivility." Two months later, she and three other female colleagues raised further complaints. They stated they felt uncomfortable sharing an office space alone with Fisher, leading to the communications office being reorganized to prevent staff from being left alone with him.
An investigation by the trust concluded that the phone incident constituted sexual harassment. The investigation also found that Fisher had previously called one colleague "good girl," used "Hello Tiger" in an email to another, and referred to a different colleague as a "minion."
Fisher was dismissed in June 2024, with the trust citing the phone incident as gross misconduct. The dismissal letter stated that the act of showing pornography, whether deliberate or negligent, had a "grossly significant and far-reaching impact" on the colleague, resulting in ongoing ill health, and constituted sexual harassment that violated her dignity.
However, an employment tribunal found procedural failings in the investigation and disciplinary process. Employment Judge James Dawson noted that while looking at pornography on one's own phone might not be morally culpable, Fisher was responsible for ensuring it would not be displayed to a junior colleague, especially one he knew to be sensitive. The judge stated that "it is not good enough to say 'it was an accident.'"
The tribunal identified failures in the investigation, including a lack of inquiry into the delay in other colleagues making complaints. These procedural issues led the tribunal to conclude that the trust "behaved unreasonably in treating [Mr Fisher]'s misconduct as a sufficient reason for dismissing him," though it was likely he would still have been dismissed without these failings.
Fisher was awarded £12,951. The judge found that Fisher contributed to his dismissal, meaning he received only a portion of the compensation he might otherwise have been entitled to.