Reasonable grounds for dismissing an employee
What
are reasonable grounds for dismissing a member of staff?
What is a fair dismissal
Dismissal of an
employee will only be fair if the employer can show that the reason for it was
one of those listed below and, except where the reason for dismissal is the
retirement of the employee, the tribunal is satisfied that the employer acted
reasonably in the circumstances in treating that reason as sufficient to justify
dismissing the employee.
The reasons are:
-
a reason related to the employee's capability or
qualification for the job;
-
a reason related to the employee's conduct;
-
from 1 October 2006, the retirement of the
employee;
-
redundancy (broadly, this is where the employer's
need for employees to do certain work has ceased or diminished or is expected
to do so);
-
a statutory restriction on either the employer or
the employee which prevents the employment being continued;
-
some other substantial reason which could justify
the dismissal.
In deciding
whether the employer acted reasonably in dismissing the employee the tribunal
will take account, amongst other factors, of whether he or she followed
appropriate disciplinary procedures.
On 1st
October 2004, the statutory dismissal and disciplinary procedures came into
force, where those procedures apply and are not treated as having been complied
with, a dismissal will be unfair if an employee is dismissed without the
statutory procedure having been followed.
Where retirement is shown to be the reason for dismissal, whether the dismissal
is fair will depend on whether the employer complied with the duty to consider
working beyond retirement.
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