How To Avoid Unfair Dismissals
Put yourself in the position of the following employers. Company One has an employee called Pat. Pat has been with the company for 8 years and is known to be a bit volatile. One day he gets into a fight with a colleague, beating him up so badly he has to go to hospital. Pat’s manager sacks him on the spot.
Company Two has an employee called Matt. Matt has been with the company for 18 months. There are some complaints about things going missing from people’s desk drawers so the manager decides to take a look around one night. He catches Matt red-handed, stealing a colleague’s mobile phone and camera. Matt’s manager tells him he won’t call the police but that he is sacked.
Company Three has an employee called Jim. Jim has been with the company for just over four years. On his birthday Jim goes out to lunch with friends; he comes back to work after a two hour drinking session. Jim’s too drunk to do any work and starts swearing at his boss and making inappropriate comments to his secretary. Jim’s manager tells him to go home and not come back.
What do Pat, Matt and Jim all have in common, apart from unemployment that is? They will all win their claims for unfair dismissal.
Every employer out there, and a good number of employees, will be sympathetic to the three companies and most people would agree that Pat, Matt and Jim deserved to be sacked for their behaviour. So, are Employment Tribunals simply so claimant-orientated that they’re not prepared to see reason?
No. Employment Tribunals have to apply the law and the law currently says that companies who sack employees without following the correct procedures are in the wrong.
How should the companies have dealt with those situations? Firstly, in each case the employees could have been suspended immediately. This would get them out of the work place and would give the companies a chance to investigate what had happened.
The companies should then have invited the employee to a disciplinary meeting. The invitation letter must set out the purpose and possible consequence of the disciplinary hearing. In other words, tell the employee what you think they’ve done and tell them they might be sacked for it.
After the disciplinary hearing the companies should write to the employee to give the outcome and offer them right of appeal.
It might sound complicated and long-winded, but it doesn’t have to be. The bare minimum statutory procedure is, in effect, two letters and one meeting, if the employee doesn’t appeal.
For taking a few extra days to comply with the procedures, the companies could have saved themselves the cost and irritation of being found guilty of unfair dismissal, when they were right to dismiss the employees.
Published 22/01/2008. The author of this article is Holly Cudbill
