EAT UNFAIR DISMISSAL
The Claimant, a staff nurse of long experience, was dismissed by the Respondent after she had delegated the administration of a drug to a care assistant in the Respondent’s care home; the care assistant gave the drug to the wrong patient. In breach of the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s guidelines, the Claimant neither recorded nor reported the drug error (which caused no harm and was unlikely to do so). The Employment Tribunal found that her dismissal for her admitted breaches of the guidelines and her failure to appreciate the seriousness of what had occurred fell within the band of reasonable responses.
Held: on appeal (i) that the ET had not failed to consider either the Claimant’s case that the Respondent had dismissed her for economic or other reasons and used the incident as a pretext or the other elements of her case (ii) that it was not the task of the ET or the EAT to decide whether the dismissal was fair (iii) that the ET had correctly applied the law and (iv) that perversity was not demonstrated. Fuller and Yeboah applied.
Judges:
Jeffrey Burke QC
Citations:
[2012] UKEAT 0453 – 11 – 1112
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Employment
Updated: 12 November 2022; Ref: scu.466979