Subjecting employee to 2nd disciplinary process on same facts may be fair (News, 21 June 2012)

Article summary

In an unfair dismissal claim, where an employer has dismissed an employee as a result of the application of a second set of disciplinary proceedings, in circumstances where the employer had previously, in relation to the same set of facts, subjected that employee to an earlier disciplinary process, which resulted in a lesser sanction, (1) the existence of the earlier proceedings raises no sort of estoppel to bar the employer from conducting the second proceedings, and those second proceedings do not amount to an abuse of process, (2) the fact of the earlier proceedings must, however, be taken fully into account in determining whether the dismissal was fair for the purposes of section 98(4) of the ERA 1996, and (3) as regards delay occasioned by the fact of there having been two sets of proceedings, (a) such delay will not affect the fairness of the dismissal if it has caused no prejudice to the employee, and...