fc_caponEAT11
EAT UNFAIR DISMISSAL – Reasonableness of dismissal
An Appellant employer alleged it was perverse of a Tribunal to conclude there had been no sufficient investigation to justify dismissal, and that dismissal was not within the range of reasonable responses open to it. Two long-serving employees with impeccable disciplinary and attendance records had been seen in company uniform working at lunchtime on private property, having used a company van to get to it. They were not believed when they said they had not been working. Further, one had submitted an inaccurate and misleading time and worksheet for the day in question. The Tribunal found that the employer’s policy as to what could be done in lunch breaks, use of property, and compilation of timesheets was unclear and as a matter of practice more honoured in the breach than in observance. It was held on appeal that the Tribunal was not perverse in making findings that in these circumstances an employer could rightly be criticised for failing to obtain evidence from the householder said to have invited the employees to the house, and had in that and other respects inadequately investigated what had happened, and in holding that to dismiss the employees was to go beyond the objective standards of the reasonable employer. The Tribunal was also found entitled to hold that the breach of contract in driving a company van further than permitted by the policy was not a repudiatory breach justifying summary dismissal.
Lansgtaff J
[2011] UKEAT 0049 – 11 – 1905
Bailii
England and Wales
Employment
Updated: 10 November 2021; Ref: scu.441159