Appeals - aka snakes and ladders
by Philip
Sometimes news reports and law reports have a dreadful symmetry. Appeals are particularly hazardous as appellants can go up a ladder on appeal (that is improve their position) or down a snake (that is worsen their position). Today we learnt that one of Saddam Hussein’s deputies had the death sentence carried out. The interesting thing about the case was the fact that at the original trial he was found guilty but sentenced to life imprisonment, that sentence was increased on appeal.
In a case at the EAT reported here an employee at a factory was dismissed for spiking a colleague’s drink. She was originally given a final written warning at the original disciplinary hearing, she appealed, and the penalty was increased to dismissal on appeal, partly because new evidence came to light.
The Tribunal found that the dismissal was unfair (and the EAT agreed) partly on the basis that if dismissal is contemplated on appeal you need to start the statutory dismissal procedure from the beginning, and as the Company had not sent out a further step one letter, the dismissal was unfair.
This case illustrates two points: firstly the dangers for employees in appealing a sanction short of dismissal, and secondly if dismissal is contemplated during the appeal, employers need to go down the statutory dismissal procedure snake and start the game again.
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