Why not saying hello to someone at work could be against the law

Many workers are guilty of making a beeline for their desks to avoid chit-chatting with colleagues.

But not saying hello to someone in the office could be a breach of employment laws, a tribunal has ruled.

It comes after a recruitment manager won an unfair dismissal case after complaining that her boss refused to say hello to her – behaviour a judge said undermined ‘trust and confidence’.

Nadine Hanson greeted her managing director Andrew Gilchrist three times when she arrived at her job in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, but he deliberately ignored her every time, the tribunal in Leeds heard.

Mr Gilchrist was angry at Ms Hanson because he thought she was late for work – but was unaware that she had had a medical appointment.

His behaviour led to Ms Hanson taking a claim against Interaction Recruitment Ltd, with Employment Judge Sarah Davies describing Mr Gilchrist’s behaviour as “unreasonable”.

“That is conduct... that is calculated or likely to undermine trust and confidence,” she said.

“While it might not, by itself, be a fundamental breach of contract, it was capable of contributing to such a breach.”

Mr Gilchrist claimed that he “could not remember” whether he said hello to Ms Hanson because it was so busy, but said he thought he said “hello to everyone”.

But the tribunal heard that Mr Gilchrist, who had just taken over the business, was “deliberately undermining” Ms Hanson to try to force her to leave.

When she tried to show him proof of the medical appointment on her phone, he pushed it out of the way and suggested that she “leave”.

Mr Gilchrist then went behind her back by giving two staff members pay rises later that day without informing Ms Hanson.

Ms Hanson, who worked for the company for 20 years, suffered from anxiety due to how she was treated and eventually quit.

She has now successfully sued the company for unfair dismissal, and also won a claim of unauthorised deduction from wages after Mr Gilchrist withheld her sick pay because he did not believe she was unwell. Ms Hanson had been signed off with anxiety during her notice period.

The tribunal found Mr Gilchrist’s evidence to be “wholly unconvincing”.

Judge Davies concluded it was “implausible’ that he didn’t hear Ms Hanson’s greeting and that ‘there was no reasonable or proper cause for deliberately ignoring [her] when she arrived at work”.

Compensation will be determined at a later date.