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A former pharmacy manager at a branch of Avicenna Retail in Bath was unfairly dismissed by the company after complaints were raised about his “robust” management style, the Bristol Employment Tribunal has found. 

Pharmacist Alfred Agyeman, who worked at Westfield Pharmacy in Radstock from April 2004 to October 2023, was dismissed from his role after concerns were raised about his alleged approach to managing junior colleagues. 

The tribunal heard that Mr Agyeman tried to assess their skill level by testing them on maths questions at the same level of difficulty as training courses for pharmacy technicians or accuracy checking technicians. 

This was typically done on the shop floor in front of other colleagues, though the tribunal accepted that it was not done “with the aim of humiliating them”.

When regional manager Fiorina Caravona made a routine visit to the branch – which Avicenna acquired from Dudley Taylor in 2021 – on September 10, 2023, a number of staff members complained about his management style and how he spoke to them, with some claiming it amounted to “bullying”.

It was reported that some employees had left the pharmacy as a result of his treatment of them and that he had on occasion fired new starters when he did not feel confident in their abilities, which remaining colleagues felt exacerbated staffing issues. 

There were also allegations that he spent time on non-work related activities, such as making personal calls on the pharmacy telephone, watching Netflix and tutoring his daughter as part of her home schooling, all of which he denied.  

There followed a meeting with Mr Agyeman on September 25, 2023 at which he was suspended “at the outset of the meeting,” the tribunal found. 

There was “no structure to the meeting” and questions regarding the complaints against Mr Agyeman were not put to him “in an organised way”. 

“We conclude that the meeting was not an investigation meeting, it was a suspension meeting,” the employment judges found. 

Allegations of ‘rudeness’

At a subsequent disciplinary hearing in early October 2023 regional manager Humera Shazad “put it to the claimant that every colleague had complained about his attitude and said he is rude”.

Mr Agyeman called this a “baseless allegation” and claimed the fact that his colleagues’ statements raised similar themes “showed collusion”. 

Ms Shazad also raised the allegations around spending time on non-work related activities, with Mr Agyeman responding that “he did not do the things he was accused of to the extent alleged” and that if he did so it was on his lunch break. 

On October 30, 2023 Ms Shazad verbally informed Mr Agyeman that she had decided to dismiss him summarily for gross misconduct and four days later sent him a letter informing him that he had been found guilty of “gross insubordination”. 

He appealed the decision on the grounds of a lack of due process and proper investigation, but was told on December 22, 2023 that his appeal had failed.

Judge’s decision

Mr Agyeman’s complaint of unfair dismissal was upheld by employment judge Richard Woodhead. A separate claim of direct race discrimination was thrown out.

Judge Woodhead found that Avicenna had failed to conduct a proper investigation and could not reasonably have reached a finding of gross subordination based on the information available to the company. 

The judge said that while it was “reasonable to conclude” Mr Agyeman had watched Netflix videos on his shift given the number of colleagues who raised this, there was no basis to conclude he was “continuously neglecting his duties as a pharmacy manager”.

The judge said the “most severe sanction” Avicenna could reasonably have taken would have been to give him a final warning and offer coaching on his management style, and that the decision to summarily dismiss Mr Agyeman had been unfairly taken. 

The tribunal found there had been “no proper investigation” before the disciplinary allegations were formulated and that Avicenna management had not made clear to Mr Agyeman why they believed the allegations as described to him at the October 2023 hearing amounted to a patient safety risk.

It also found that his behaviour had not amounted to bullying and that Avicenna had not asked staff what they meant by the term ‘bullying,’ meaning the disciplinary hearing was “characterised by imprecise questions to which the claimant could only reasonably give a limited response”. 

However, the tribunal took the view that Mr Agyeman had a “robust” management style and “did not have patience” with those who lacked “sufficient ability and drive” to complete the ACT course. 

It found he had contributed to a “bad atmosphere and discontent” at the branch and therefore decided it would be “just and equitable” to reduce his basic award and compensatory awards by 25 per cent each.

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