The dismissal of employees for sleeping at work was not an automatically unfair dismissal for ‘refusing’ to accept an employer’s breach of working time law (the requirement to provide rest breaks).
‘Refusal’ must be explicit and cannot be implied from an employee’s failure to comply with the employer’s instruction to work without a break. Although not an automatically unfair dismissal, employees with sufficient service might be able to claim ordinary unfair dismissal. (Ajayi v Aitch Care Homes (London), EAT)