Misconduct dismissals

New and updated

• Date:

  28 July 2016

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Dismissal of baker for not washing hands was fair

  An employment tribunal has held that an experienced employee should have appreciated the seriousness of breaching his employer's hygiene rules and it was appropriate for the employer to dismiss him.

• Date:

  8 June 2016

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Fair dismissal for use of racist term heard by white colleagues only

  An employment tribunal has held that an employer fairly dismissed an employee for using a racist term in the presence of white colleagues. The tribunal was unimpressed with the claimant's arguments that he did not realise anyone was listening, did not intend to offend, and the word is "street talk" where he lives.

• Date:

  13 May 2016

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Unfair dismissal: manager who refused drug test should have set example

  A manager who refused to take a "for cause" drug test was fairly dismissed because his employer was entitled to expect him to set an example for other staff, according to an employment tribunal.

• Date:

  7 May 2016

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Computer misuse: password sharing was widespread, says claimant

  The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has considered the fairness of a dismissal for uploading obscene material onto a work cloud storage account, when the employee argued that password sharing was "widespread" in his workplace.

• Date:

  4 May 2016

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  No right to privacy for emails and photos on iPhone relating to work colleague

  The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has held that the employee had no reasonable expectation of privacy in respect of inappropriate emails and photographs on his iPhone relating to a work colleague that affected the workplace.

• Date:

  3 May 2016

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Unfair dismissal: Employee's dismissal was fair even though colleague received lesser sanction

  In MBNA Ltd v Jones EAT/0120/15, the EAT held that the employee was fairly dismissed despite the fact that a colleague involved in the same incident received a final written warning.

• Date:

  1 April 2016

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Case round-up

  Lauren Evans, Iain Naylor, David Rintoul, Lucy Sorell and Rachael Wake are associates at Addleshaw Goddard LLP. They round up the latest rulings.

• Date:

  21 March 2016

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Employee who "pulls a sickie" can be dismissed for misconduct

  The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has affirmed that an employee who makes up, or exaggerates the effects of, an injury or illness to take fraudulent sick leave is fundamentally breaching the implied term of trust and confidence and can be dismissed for misconduct.

• Date:

  29 January 2016

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Series of incidents of verbal abuse of colleagues culminates in fair dismissal

  This first-instance tribunal decision shows that a series of incidents in which an employee is warned for verbally abusing colleagues can combine to lead to a fair dismissal, even if taken individually the incidents do not justify dismissal.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Employee fairly dismissed after taking bribe contrary to Bribery Act 2010

  The dismissal of an immigration officer for taking a bribe was held to be fair by the employment tribunal. The employer was entitled to conclude that the honesty and integrity of the employee, who performed an important public function, was in doubt because she did not immediately report the bribe.