Salesman who asked boss 'Do you want to fight?' wins unfair dismissal

A Lamborghini salesman who got into a heated argument with his boss and asked him ‘Do you want to fight me?’ has won his unfair dismissal case.

Gregory Dunning was left feeling ‘belittled’ and ‘threatened’ by Stuart Lee who told him to ‘grow some f****** balls’ and split his commission with a junior, an employment tribunal heard.

Mr Dunning refused this which prompted the angry boss to ‘berate’ him as he tried to walk past him.

The salesman was eventually sacked for asking for a fight, the tribunal heard.

But now the employment tribunal panel has now ordered for him to be compensated £4,085 after a judge ruled, he ‘was not being physically aggressive’ and should not have been sacked.

It was heard the Grange Motors garage in Brentwood, Essex, specialises in selling and servicing Bentleys and Lamborghinis, offering customers new and pre-owned cars.

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The South African salesman started working at the Tunbridge Wells branch in February 2021 as a sales manager and was ‘exceptionally good’ at sales.

At the time, Mr Dunning was on £20,000 per year plus commission, it was heard.

For new cars, this made up of £200 when ordered and then between £300 and £800 upon delivery of the vehicle.

However, in January 2022, Mr Dunning signed a new contract increasing his salary but altering his commissions which he was ‘not happy’ about.

It was heard by May 2022, the relationship between the salesman and his boss had ‘deteriorated’ after a ‘disagreement’ over payments on expenses from Mr Lee’s trip to Italy.

Mr Lee entered the salesman’s office to have a ‘discussion’ about a more junior female colleague, and their slice of commission from a recent sale.

It was heard the woman had been involved in the subsequent contact with clients and was claiming commission for her role in the sale.

The panel were told Mr Lee told Mr Dunning he should ‘hand over some or all’ of his £1,000 commission.

In a ‘difficult’ discussion, the woman left the meeting after getting ‘upset’.

It was heard Mr Lee then ‘threatened’ to take the commission already paid to the salesman off of him in order to distribute it himself.

At which point, Mr Dunning countered that if he did that, ‘I will be the one walking out of the door’.

The panel heard Mr Lee then leaned over the desk to say ‘grow some f****** balls and do it’.

The boss then got up to leave and shut the door as Mr Dunning approached, at which point it was heard the latter said ‘do you want to fight me?’

After conflicting reports, the panel found Mr Dunning then went to walk past Mr Lee to leave his office and check on the woman, which caused unintentional chest to chest contact between the two men.

The tribunal heard Mr Lee was ‘most irate’ of the pair as CCTV showed him pointing his finger at Mr Dunning to ‘berate’ him.

Following this, Mr Dunning submitted a grievance stating he had been ‘threatened’ by his ‘very manipulative’ manager having been ‘belittled’.

However, his concerns were dismissed, and he was instead invited to a disciplinary meeting for ‘physical confrontation’ with Mr Lee and intimidating behaviour towards him.

In June 2022, Mr Dunning was dismissed without notice – having his appeal dismissed he was told ‘you were dismissed for asking your general manager if he wanted to have a fight’.

Employment Judge Amanda Hart said: “We have found as a fact that Mr Dunning was not being physically aggressive towards Mr Lee.

“We have also found as a fact that the words said by Mr Dunning was ‘do you want to fight me’.

“We consider this to be an ambiguous phrase and that it could be construed as do you want to have an argument rather than an invitation for a physical fight.

“This is a natural construction of these words regardless of whether or not they are a standard South African turn of phrase.

“Mr Dunning meant do you want to have an argument and not do you want to have a physical fight.

“On this basis of those findings we do not find that Mr Dunning’s conduct fundamentally breached the contract entitling the respondent to dismiss him without notice.”

His claim of wrongful dismissal therefore succeeded.

As a result, he was awarded £4,085 in compensation - the equivalent of three months’ notice pay.

He also lost claims of race discrimination and harassment in relation to being called ‘the South African’ and ‘South African C***’.