Misconduct: Lack of investigation renders disloyalty dismissal unfair

An industrial tribunal was entitled to conclude that an employee who set up outside business interests and concealed them from his employer in breach of his contract of employment was unfairly dismissed, holds the Court of Session in Scottish Daily Record & Sunday Mail (1986) Ltd v Laird [1996] IRLR 665. The employer had failed to carry out sufficient investigation into the matter, which would have revealed that there was no significant conflict between the employee's outside activities and the interests of the employer's business.