I have just finished hearing an appeal against a decision to dismiss an employee.
Appeals should be easy. All of the ‘i’s should be dotted and all of the ‘t’s crossed by the time the appeal happens.
After all, the ex-employee could have gone straight to a tribunal without even raising an appeal. So, an appeal is a final chance to make sure that everything stacks up. This one didn’t!
There was no investigation report.
There were no notes of the disciplinary hearing – okay, the employee did not attend, but there should still be notes.
These would say:
what information was considered,
Nothing.
Then there was the dismissal letter – full of ‘process’ but no ‘substance’. There was no reasoning, no evidence referred to and no explanation as to why the decision to dismiss was taken.
And the invite letters …. yes, they said that dismissal was a possibility, but they never said that the employee was accused of ‘gross misconduct’. Disastrous.
If an Employment Tribunal Judge had been asked to consider this dismissal, the outcome would have been a resounding UNFAIR.
Luckily, I should be able to salvage things, but the point is …. appeal managers should not be your last resort.
If you would like some free guidance on how appeals should be handled, I am here to help.
I am a qualified employment law solicitor with over 25 years' experience working for the most part with employers. All businesses are vulnerable to tribunal claims from employees. My firm…
