Unfair dismissal, and procedural defects in process

Unfair dismissal, and procedural defects in process

The Employment Appeal Tribunal ruled on the 25^th June on a case where a dismissal occurred, with “serious procedural deficiencies” and found that in spite of the deficiencies in process, the dismissal was fair.

The employer failed to follow the ACAS code and dismissed for reasons that were not part of the disciplinary process. In fact, some for the allegations were not actually put to the employee.

The appeal was treated as a rehearing, rather than a review. That is to say, that the appeal panel heard the matter again, from fresh rather than just reviewing the evidence.

In the circumstances, the Appeal Tribunal felt that the dismissal was fair.

There is an interesting point about the merits of an appeal that is a review, as opposed to a rehearing. However, while the law used to be that a review could not remedy a defect in the dismissal, that is no longer the case. However, to be clear, if there is any doubt about the original procedure, then a rehearing on appeal will be the safest course of action.

The full case report, and a light discussion of the larger legal issues can be found at the following link:

http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKEAT/2015/0293_14_0105.html

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