Rodgers had a seven-month-old baby and an older child with sickle cell anaemia who would be severely ill if he contracted the virus and told his manager he would not be returning to work until the lockdown had eased as he was concerned about the risk to his children. There was no further dialogue and one month later he was dismissed due to this absence with no further explanation. Because he did not have the two years’ service required to bring an ordinary unfair dismissal claim, he brought a claim for automatically unfair dismissal under sections 100(d) and (e) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA 96).