Published on Sep 12, 2024
Each week new cases relating to unfair dismissal are reported. Many have quite predictable outcomes, but there are the occasional ones that stick in the memory because the outcome seems so harsh on the employer.
One such case was Rumbold v Jaguar Land Rover [2020]. In this case an employee had an awful absence record – he had been absent for over 800 shifts during his 20-year career. It was calculated that this had cost the organisation around £95,850 in sick pay. Understandably, the organisation was getting very frustrated and decided that it was time to bring Rumbold’s employment to an end.
Unfortunately for the organisation, once it had decided that it was time to bring things to an end it rushed the process. It did not follow its contractual disciplinary procedures, and as a result the dismissal was unfair.
Reading the headlines it seemed so surprising. How can the dismissal of someone with such a poor absence record be unfair. Surely the organisation had been more than reasonable by keeping him in employment for 20 years.
The answer to this lies in understanding what is needed for a dismissal to be fair. There must be a fair reason for dismissal, a fair procedure must be followed and the decision to dismiss must be within the range of reasonable responses.
There are five potentially fair reasons for dismissal. These are set out in the Employment Rights Act 1996, and are:
It is certainly true that the range of reasons is broad, but when dismissing an employee an employer must refer to this list and make sure that the decision to dismiss relates to one of these reasons.
The potentially fair procedure must firstly adhere to the Acas Code of Practice: Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures. The Acas Code is not a piece of law, but it does have statutory force which means that an Employment Tribunal must have regard to whether it has been followed when deciding if a dismissal is fair. If it is not followed and the employee successfully claims unfair dismissal the compensatory award can be increased by up to 50%.
Finally, the decision to dismiss must be within the range of reasonable responses open to an employer. It is accepted that one employer might be more harsh than another. All that the Employment Tribunal must do is consider whether dismissal was something that a reasonable employer should have done.
Getting the dismissal process wrong can mean a finding of unfair dismissal, and the financial and reputational cost that goes with this. All employers need to understand the components that go together to make a dismissal fair.
Join Kathy Daniels, expert trainer, to work through all this detail in a day long online course on ‘Successfully Managing Disciplinary and Dismissal Procedures’. The course dates are 15 November 2024, 7 March 2025 or 22 July 2025. Join the course to find out more, and to be sure that what you do when disciplining or dismissing your employees is legally compliant.
Published on Sep 12, 2024 by Kathy Daniels