Unfair Dismissal - Procedural Defects
by Liam
The EAT has handed down its judgement in Gokce v Scottish Ambulance Service. The case concerned an ambulance being used improperly to taxi a drunk colleague home from a nightclub.
The case makes a good example of a Claimant nit-picking points about the Respondent’s procedure and arguing that the said points render the dismissal unfair.
One such point which we often hear from Claimants is the Respondent did not investigate A Another - hes been doing the same as me. The EAT commented:
“Finally, it is not a ground of unfairness to identify potential misconduct of others who might have been investigated further. The employers investigated those who appeared to them to be most directly involved in the incident. The fact that they might, but did not, trawl wider is not a ground for treating these employees as having been unfairly treated.”
While most employers will (and should as a matter of best practice) try to treat all employees fairly, failing to investigate one employee while investigating another does not necessarily make a dismissal unfair.
Similar Posts:
