Benavides v Britannia Services Group Limited [2019]

The Respondent is a contract cleaning company which specialises in retail clients. The claimant was an employee of the respondent and worked at Topshop’s main store in Oxford Street, London.

In 2016, the claimant helped organise a 200-person protest outside the store, demanding better rates of pay. She was later dismissed. The respondent denied that the claimant was dismissed because of her trade union membership or any legitimate trade union acts. Instead, it claimed she was dismissed on grounds of gross misconduct relating to her activities on social media and for breaching the company’s social media policy.

While the respondent argued that ‘large scale public direct-action protests’ cannot