Employment Law

If you have ever witnessed anybody at work being asked to “leave immediately” or “clear their desk,” then the chances are they were either unfairly dismissed or have been found guilty of Gross Misconduct. This is extremely severe, it is a scenario where the actions of an employee are considered to make their position in the business simply untenable. This can range from discriminatory behaviour to violence and from intoxication to theft, but the result is usually 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 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. Although it is fairly widespread sense as to what activities constitute as Gross Misconduct the employer need to still be careful. If they dismiss an employee for Gross Misconduct and are subsequently taken to an Employment Tribunal, they will want to show that the choice was fair and reasonable and any other ‘reasonable’ employer would have made the exact same option.

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

The area of Gross Misconduct is a challenging region of Employment Law simply because 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 often be potential for employers to get it wrong.