Tribunal not to substitute its view for that of the employer
by Liam
The EAT have overturned the decision of an Employment Tribunal which made the mistake of substituting its own view for that of the employer. This appears to be a common mistake of Employment Judges. For example here and here.
This time, the Tribunal decided it would have carried out more investigation than the employer, rather than deciding whether the investigation the employer carried out was within the range of objective reasonable responses. The EAT pointed out that the range of reasonable responses test applies as much to investigations as it does to decisions to dismiss. This has been established law since Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Ltd v Hitt.
This confirms that for a dismissal to be unfair by reason of inadequate investigation, it is not sufficient for the Tribunal merely to identify further lines of investigation that the employer could have carried out. The Tribunal must be satisfied that the investigation did not meet the standards that a reasonable employer’s investigation would meet.
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