Discipline

New and updated

• How many levels of appeal should there be under a disciplinary procedure?

  Type:

  FAQs

• What should an employer do if an employee does not agree the minutes or notes of a disciplinary or grievance meeting and asks for them to be amended?

  Type:

  FAQs

• Discipline: No contractual right to increase disciplinary sanction on appeal

  Date:

  1 June 2015

  Type:

  Law reports

  In McMillan v Airedale NHS Foundation Trust [2014] IRLR 803 CA, the Court of Appeal held that the NHS had no contractual right to increase a disciplinary sanction on a doctor's internal appeal against that sanction.

• Unfair dismissal: Dismissal procedurally and substantively unfair where inexperienced chair dismissed for serious but not gross misconduct

  Date:

  1 June 2015

  Type:

  Law reports

  In Thomson v Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust EAT/0218/14, the EAT upheld an employment tribunal's ruling that a conduct dismissal was unfair because the chair of the disciplinary panel had no training or experience in the role, and he impermissibly dismissed for what amounted to serious but not gross misconduct. The employee had, however, failed to establish that there was any failure to make reasonable adjustments.

• Unfair dismissal: employer not obliged to put disciplinary process on hold to deal with grievance

  Date:

  15 May 2015

  Type:

  Law reports

  The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has held that an employer was not obliged to put the disciplinary process on hold until the employee's grievance had been investigated.

• Unfair dismissal: decision to dismiss should not rely on a warning issued in bad faith

  Date:

  5 May 2015

  Type:

  Law reports

  The Court of Appeal has revisited the issue of warnings and confirmed that a warning given in bad faith cannot be relied on to justify a dismissal.

• Misconduct: Investigation was reasonable despite not covering in detail each line of defence

  Date:

  1 May 2015

  Type:

  Law reports

  In Shrestha v Genesis Housing Association Ltd [2015] IRLR 399 CA, the Court of Appeal held that an employer's investigation into an employee's inflated mileage claims was reasonable, even though it had not investigated in detail every implausible explanation offered by the employee.

• Unfair dismissal: NHS trust's disciplinary process flawed due to panel's lack of training and experience

  Date:

  10 April 2015

  Type:

  Law reports

  The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has held that a dismissal was procedurally unfair because the chair of the disciplinary panel had no experience or training in conducting disciplinary hearings. This led to the disciplinary panel misapplying the disciplinary procedure, and in these circumstances, the EAT found the dismissal was also substantively unfair.

• Letter inviting an employee to attend a final disciplinary appeal hearing where the employer offers more than one level of appeal

  Type:

  Policies and documents

  A model letter inviting an employee to attend a final disciplinary appeal hearing where the employer offers more than one level of appeal.

• Order of proceedings for a disciplinary appeal hearing

  Type:

  Policies and documents

  A model order of proceedings for a disciplinary appeal hearing.