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Case Examples
Disability Discrimination Update
April 2008
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Unfair Dismissal:
Employees have a statutory right not to be unfairly dismissed. Where dismissal is admitted by the employer, then the employer must generally show that the dismissal fell within one or more of the following categories:
• Misconduct
• Poor capability or qualifications
• Redundancy
• Unlawfulness
• Some other substantial reason
The key concept in unfair dismissal cases is “reasonableness”. the employment tribunal has a very wide discretion in deciding this matter.
Y was employed by a major supermarket chain as a baker. He was dismissed for allegedly stealing a box of razor blades which were found in his locker. Y claimed that they had been put there by someone else. He complained of unfair dismissal. The employment tribunal ruled that the dismissal had been unfair because the employer’s investigation of the alleged theft had been flawed and inadequate. The employers appealed to the Employment Appeal Tribunal which dismissed the appeal and ruled that it could not interfere with the employment tribunal’s decision on the facts of the case.
The employers then appealed to the Court of Appeal. That Court allowed the appeal and made the following points:
• The employment tribunal had substituted its own opinion of what was a reasonable and adequate investigation instead of applying the objective standard of the reasonable employer as to what was a reasonable investigation.
• If the correct approach had been taken, the only conclusion which a reasonable tribunal could have reached was that the employer’s investigation was reasonable in all the circumstances, and that the dismissal was reasonable.