An adequate investigation and a fair system of warnings are key to the successful defence of an unfair dismissal claim related to misconduct, as this case shows.
In this unusual case, an employee was dismissed and offered reinstatement on appeal, before purportedly resigning due to the terms of the reinstatement.
The Court of Appeal has held that an employee's contract of employment was terminated by the transfer of pay in lieu of notice into his bank account, even though he did not know at the time that this had happened.
In this case, the employment tribunal held that an employer placed too much emphasis on an employee's "flippant" and "sarcastic" attitude during a disciplinary hearing and failed properly to consider the flaws in the evidence against him.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that, where an employee is dismissed primarily because of a breakdown in trust and confidence rather than conduct, the employer's contractual disciplinary procedures will not apply.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that the employment tribunal was wrong to find that the absence of a system of moderating two sets of redundancy scores following a TUPE transfer rendered the selection process unfair.