Circumstances may arise where an employer wishes to revisit the disciplinary sanction applied against an employee. A recently reported case has stated that a dismissal arising from repeated disciplinary proceedings will not necessarily be unfair.
This means that in serious cases, you could revisit the disciplinary sanction applied to an employee by going through the disciplinary procedure again.
Christou & Ward v London Borough of Haringey
Facts
In this case, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has upheld the original Tribunal’s decision that it did not render dismissals unfair where the employees in question had already received warnings for the same conduct.
This case involved the social worker responsible for Baby P and her line manager. Prior to the trial of Baby P’s mother and others and the ensuing media covering, both employees were taken through the Haringey’s simplified disciplinary procedure and were sanctioned with the most severe penalty available under that policy, a written warning.
Subsequently, the trial of Baby P’s mother and the media coverage thereof lead to a public outcry over the failings of Haringey. The Secretary of State launched a full investigation. That investigation led to new senior managers being appointed at Haringey who were then instructed to review what had gone wrong. They then instigated formal disciplinary proceedings against the employees which led to their dismissals.
The employees brought claims for unfair dismissal citing the re-trying of the disciplinary case as major cause of procedural unfairness. Their claims were rejected by the Employment Tribunal and they then appealed to the EAT.
Comment
The consequences of the failings of the employees in this case were dreadful. The EAT’s view was that it was fair in all the circumstances for the disciplinary cases to be reheard. This should not be seen as giving employers a blanket right to reopen disciplinary cases as in the vast majority of cases, it will still be unfair for an employee to have to face the same disciplinary case twice regardless of mistakes or the approach taken by the employer. Disciplinary cases can only be reopened in the most extreme and serious of cases, such as this.
For more employment law advice or to comment on this article, please contact Laura Kearsley or another member one of our employment law team on 0800 024 1976 or via our online form.