Unfair Dismissal

A recent appeal case shows that the range of reasonable responses test really does have some teeth after all.

A dismissal for misconduct will be fair if the employer ticks four boxes (and, of course, follows a fair procedure). The employer must:

carry out a reasonable investigation honestly believe the employee is guilty of the alleged misconduct have reasonable grounds for that belief and

the dismissal must be within a range of reasonable responses to the employee's misconduct, measured by the standards of a hypothetical reasonable employer. Facts

In Graham v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Graham had worked for the DWP for 30 years, latterly as a manager in a Jobcentre. Her record was exemplary. She helped a young man, Moss, whose personal situation was very difficult and who was a friend of a friend of her daughter's, to look for a job. It was alleged that this help was given in breach of DWP rules. The investigating manager decided that

Moss had become Graham's acquaintance, so she should not have used her position to help him she had breached security by taking him into the staff canteen for a sandwich she had left him unattended by her work computer for a short time. She was dismissed summarily for gross misconduct. ET decision

The employment tribunal found that Graham had not helped Moss after she had become his "acquaintance". So, in fact, all she had done wrong was to take Moss to the Jobcentre canteen and to have left him sitting unattended at her computer for a short period. The tribunal concluded that dismissal on these grounds was outside the range of reasonable responses.

EAT Decision

The DWP appealed to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT). The EAT said it thought that, on the evidence, Graham had in fact helped Moss after she had become his acquaintance. It held that the tribunal had wrongly substituted its own view of the evidence for that of the employer and that the dismissal "... plainly and unarguably fell within the range of reasonable responses ...".

CA...