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Disciplinary Procedures - Range of Responses of a Responsible Employer
The Court of Appeal has recently given their judgement on the case Strouthos v London Underground. The decision serves as a timely reminder that provided the employer’s decision is within the range of reasonable responses an Employment Tribunal should not interfere and should avoid substituting their own views.
The case involved a London Underground driver who was dismissed for gross misconduct after taking a company vehicle without permission. The Employee had some twenty years service and had no relevant prior warnings.
The Employment Tribunal held that London Underground had not acted reasonably in dismissing the employee. Given his record and length of service, this incident did not amount to gross misconduct. Therefore they held that the dismissal was unfair.
London Underground appealed this decision and the Employment Appeals Tribunal held that as the employee had acted dishonestly this amounted to a breach of trust, which placed the Employment Tribunal under an obligation to conclude that the dismissal was fair.
The Court of Appeal subsequently held that the Employment Tribunal had been correct in concluding that the dismissal was unfair. Lord Justice Pill emphasised the importance of structuring disciplinary charges accurately and confining evidence to the facts of the charge. In this case, the employee had not been accused of dishonesty he was dismissed because he had taken the vehicle without permission. The degree of misconduct as alleged was not such that the Employment Tribunal were unreasonable in concluding that dismissal was outside the range of reasonable responses.
Practical Tip
Just because an example of gross misconduct is referred to in the disciplinary rules this does not automatically justify dismissal. Tribunals will look at all the surrounding circumstances including the length of service and disciplinary record to determine whether the sanction is within the range of reasonable responses. Be very careful that the misconduct is correctly labelled. This is particularly important in the light of the new Regulations governing disciplinary procedures which came into force last month.
