Misconduct: Range of reasonable responses test is not wrong

In Midland Bank plc v Madden 7.3.00 EAT 1107/98, the EAT holds that, while no court short of the Court of Appeal can discard the range or band of reasonable responses test as a determinative test, a tribunal is free to substitute its own views for those of the employer as to the reasonableness of dismissal as a response to the reason shown for it. To have been "shown" by the employer, the reason for the dismissal must in disputed misconduct cases have survived the Burchell test, which does not deal with the question of reasonableness. A tribunal is free to substitute its own views for those of the employer in coming to a view on each of the Burchell test's three parts, but it is not free to do so as to the reason shown by the employer once that has survived the Burchell test. Here, by reason of that test being failed, there was no substantial reason shown for the dismissal. The dismissal was accordingly unfair.