Employment Law

If you have ever witnessed anybody at work being asked to “leave right away” or “clear their desk,” then the chances are they had been either unfairly dismissed or have been discovered guilty of Gross Misconduct. This is very significant, it is a situation where the actions of an employee are regarded as to make their position in the company merely untenable. This can range from discriminatory behaviour to violence and from intoxication to theft, but the result is often the same: the contractual relationship between the employee and the employer is broken and the employee must leave with out notice or pay in lieu of notice.

The employer really should usually set out in the employment contract what is classified as Gross Misconduct as this will make it less complicated to identify unwanted behaviour later on down the line. While it is fairly frequent sense as to what activities constitute as Gross Misconduct the employer must still be careful. If they dismiss an employee for Gross Misconduct and are subsequently taken to an Employment Tribunal, they will need to show that the choice was fair and reasonable and any other ‘reasonable’ employer would have produced the very same choice.

Even so, contrary to several people’s beliefs, instant dismissal due to Gross Misconduct does not really mean instant dismissal. It is considered unlawful for an employer to dismiss an employee without having a via investigation, a disciplinary hearing and permitting the employee to express their views and have them noted. If following thinking about the circumstances and deciding to proceed with the dismissal the employer does not give the employee the chance to appeal, they could open themselves to being sued in the Civil Courts or the Tribunal. To  complicate matters a lot more, if the employer gives the employee notice or pay in lieu of notice, they will be seen to have weakened their case.

The region of Gross Misconduct is a challenging location of Employment Law since the term itself and the procedure to follow are open to a number of various interpretations. With no absolute definition of what acts constitute as Gross Misconduct there will constantly be prospective for employers to get it wrong.