EAT UNFAIR DISMISSAL – Procedural fairness/automatically unfair dismissal
The Employment Tribunal held that the Claimant was unfairly dismissed by reason of misconduct and suffered an unlawful deduction from wages of pounds 750. Although the Employment Tribunal concluded that the Respondent had a genuine belief in the misconduct alleged and reasonable grounds for that belief, it held that the dismissal was procedurally unfair because there was no preliminary investigation and the dismissing manager was not impartial. The Employment Tribunal plainly thought that if somebody without an axe to grind had considered the situation during a preliminary investigation, the disciplinary allegations might never have got off the ground. The Employment Tribunal also held that the appeal stage did not cure earlier defects.
The appeal sought to challenge the finding that the investigation stage of the process was flawed; and the conclusion that the appeal did not remedy deficiencies in the earlier stage of the process. There was also a discreet ground challenging the holding that a repayment agreement signed by the Claimant authorising deductions from his wages was not valid so that the deductions were unlawful.
The appeal failed and was dismissed. The Employment Tribunal made findings of fact based on the evidence and correctly applied the law to the facts reaching conclusions that were open to it and not arguably in error in relation to the dismissal. In particular, the Employment Tribunal was entitled to conclude that the failure to conduct an investigation, coupled with the failure to have an impartial dismissing officer made the dismissal procedurally unfair. Further it was open to the Employment Tribunal to conclude on the facts that the appeal did not cure the earlier deficiencies in the process. As for the unlawful deduction finding, the Employment Tribunal’s conclusion was supported by reliance on section 13(6) Employment Rights Act 1996 in light of its findings, and was not in error of law on that basis.
Citations:
[2017] UKEAT 0313 – 16 – 2310
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Employment
Updated: 02 April 2022; Ref: scu.601907
