Can you get sacked for misconduct

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Top links Find your local Citizens Advice Volunteer with us Jobs in our network Press releases Our blogs Read what we're saying about a range of issues. England This advice applies to England: England home Advice can vary depending on where you live. Check if your dismissal is unfair This advice applies to England Print.

To check if you can do anything to challenge your dismissal, follow these 4 steps: 1. If you think the written explanation is untrue or unfair you might have been unfairly dismissed. Did this advice help? Yes No. Why wasn't this advice helpful? It isn't relevant to my situation. It doesn't have enough detail. I can't work out what I should do next. I don't understand. You've reached the character limit.

Thank you, your feedback has been submitted. In this section. But instant dismissal is a very severe penalty, and if the employee takes you to an Employment Tribunal, you would have to be able to demonstrate that your decision:.

You would also have to show that the offence was so wrong that instant dismissal was an appropriate sanction. It is always advisable to list the offences which merit instant dismissal in the disciplinary policy - though you should make it plain that the list is not exhaustive. You must follow fair and reasonable disciplinary procedures, even in gross misconduct cases see 4.

Your disciplinary procedure, and the way you apply it, must be fair and reasonable. There is an Acas Code of Practice that provides practical guidance and principles to help you and your employees and their representatives.

It sets out the basic requirements of fairness and, for most cases, provides a minimum standard of reasonable behaviour. Your own procedures may require you to do more. The Code also applies to grievance issues. For example, it might be reasonable instantly to dismiss a relatively new employee, with reserved references, who comes in fighting drunk one Friday afternoon and tries to punch his foreman. But it might not be reasonable to instantly dismiss a long-standing employee with a good record, who comes in to work after a drink to celebrate the birth of a grandchild.

It is important to be consistent in taking disciplinary action, but it may be that there are strong mitigating circumstances in one case that are not there in another. So you need to investigate all the circumstances thoroughly, and consider them carefully. If you sack one employee for an offence which, in another case, merits only a written or verbal warning, you need to be able to justify your decision to impose a more severe penalty in the one case than the other.

Otherwise you could face allegations of unfairness and discrimination. Keep written records of why you did what you did. In a case that illustrates other factors the courts take into account when considering the issue of consistency, a member of staff who had missed a critical deadline was dismissed, even though another member of staff was still employed, despite missing critical deadlines on three previous occasions.

An Employment Tribunal found that the dismissal was unfair because of the inconsistency. But the Employment Appeals Tribunal disagreed: the over-riding question, it said, was whether the dismissal was reasonable, not whether or not it was consistent. If you sack someone without undertaking a proper investigation, holding a disciplinary hearing, giving the employee accompanied by a companion the opportunity to put his or her case, considering the circumstances, and - if the decision is to dismiss - giving the employee an opportunity to appeal, you will lay yourself wide open to an unfair dismissal claim.

Even if you follow your disciplinary procedure, you can't assume you will be free from criticism by a Tribunal. The Tribunal may consider whether there were any other procedural steps, in addition to those set out in your procedure, that you should have followed before dismissing your employee. If the offence is sufficiently gross and overt, to merit instant dismissal, you should be able to get your disciplinary hearing and appeal out of the way within two to three weeks although speed should not override the need for it to be fair.

If it goes to a Tribunal it could drag on for months. You should give examples in the disciplinary policy of what you would consider to be gross misconduct but state that the list is not exhaustive. In areas where it is possible for employees to assume they are only committing a minor misdemeanour, or even no misdemeanour at all - for example, use of personal software in work computers - you must ensure they are aware of the consequences, if you would treat it as gross misconduct.

You can change your cookie settings at any time. Different disciplinary procedures are appropriate for different circumstances. Employees have the right to be accompanied to all disciplinary meetings and to appeal to a manager. Keep notes of all meetings and give copies to the employee. Arrange a meeting with the employee, telling them the reason for it.

Hold a third meeting if their performance or behaviour is still not up to standard by these new deadlines. Warn them that dismissal is now possible.

After the meeting - or appeal if there is one - decide whether to give the employee a further chance to improve, or dismiss them. You must tell the employee of your final decision, whatever it is. Explain that not improving could lead to dismissal. Gross misconduct can include things like theft, physical violence, gross negligence or serious insubordination.

With gross misconduct, you can dismiss the employee immediately as long as you follow a fair procedure.