Misconduct: Dismissal unfair for failure to investigate mitigation

An employer was under a duty to investigate whether an employee's depressive illness might have affected his behaviour, after the depression was mentioned by the employee in mitigation of his misconduct, holds the EAT in Chamberlain Vinyl Products Ltd v Patel 2.2.95 EAT 796/94. In this case the employer had not obtained sufficient information from the employee's doctor before deciding to dismiss, and the industrial tribunal had been entitled to hold that the dismissal had been unfair in all the circumstances.