Reason for dismissal ― conduct

By Tolley in association with Hannah Freeman at Old Square Chambers

The following Employment Tax guidance note by Tolley in association with Hannah Freeman at Old Square Chambers provides comprehensive and up to date tax information covering:

Reason for dismissal ― conduct
Refusal to comply with instructions
Breach of discipline
Criminal offence
Misconduct related to disability
Fairness of dismissal
Where working relations have broken down

Note: the case references in this guidance note are all subscription sensitive.

Conduct is a potentially fair reason for dismissal. Dismissals for misconduct are probably the most frequent category of unfair dismissal claim brought before the employment tribunal.

Dismissal for an isolated incident of misconduct will rarely be fair although, in some circumstances, the incident will be sufficiently serious to justify dismissal for a first offence. Generally, dismissal for misconduct will only be a reasonable sanction if the employee had committed earlier acts of misconduct and been warned that further incidents may lead to dismissal. The misconduct for which an employee is dismissed need not be of the same nature as the conduct for which the warning was imposed. The courts have held that a final written warning always implies, subject only to the individual terms of a contract, that misconduct of any nature will often, and usually, result in dismissal.

Wincanton Group plc v Stone & Ors [2013] IRLR 178

Refusal to comply with instructions

An employee is under a general obligation to follow lawful instructions given by his employer. The scope of the employer’s powers and the employee’s obligations will usually be set out in a written statement of terms and conditions or other contractual documentation. However, there may also be unwritten duties arising from custom and practice.

Fair dismissal may follow from a refusal to comply with an instruction to carry out normal duties. It may also follow from a refusal to follow an instruction to carry out new duties; for example, where a contract requires an employee to work at any of the employer’s workplaces within a reasonable commuting distance of his home, a refusal to transfer from one workplace to another may justify dismissal.

In certain circumstances, a dismissal may be fair even where the instruction in question was outside the scope