This is a rare instance, along with the decision in Barlow v Ranc Care Homes Ltd ET/1101527/10, of an employment tribunal ordering an employer to reinstate an unfairly dismissed employee.
In this case, the tribunal held that a police force was entitled to dismiss a long-serving employee who admitted that she had committed a single act of dishonesty outside work.
The employer in this case unfairly dismissed an employee whom it strongly suspected of moonlighting, but where it did not have definitive proof. Although the dismissal was procedurally unfair, the claimant's compensation was reduced to zero because the employer's suspicions were later verified.
In Bowater v Northwest London Hospitals NHS Trust [2011] IRLR 331 CA, the Court of Appeal held that an employment tribunal was entitled to find that the dismissal of a nurse for making a lewd comment in the course of restraining an epileptic patient was outside the range of reasonable responses. It was intended as a humorous remark, and there was no evidence that the patient or any member of the public heard it.
Claire Benson is managing associate and Helen Corbett, Sinead Jones, Helen Ward and Tori O'Neil are associates at Addleshaw Goddard LLP. They round up the latest rulings.
The employer in this case did not have absolute proof that the employee had committed misconduct, but carried out a thorough investigation that showed that it was highly likely that he had.
This case involves an employer that, rather than deal with problems with an employee's behaviour and attitude by giving him a series of warnings, used them as an excuse to dismiss him.
The employer in this case ran into trouble when it dismissed an employee after he refused to work on some days during the company's annual shutdown, because it did not make clear that the outcome of his refusal could be dismissal.