If your contract sets out a disciplinary procedure, your employer has to follow it before dismissing you, even when the allegation looks like gross misconduct.
“The disciplinary procedure in your contract binds your employer, so a serious-sounding allegation does not let them skip the steps they agreed to before dismissing you.”
The disciplinary procedure in your contract binds your employer, so a serious-sounding allegation does not let them skip the steps they agreed to before dismissing you.
- Read your contract and disciplinary policy and note the steps your employer has agreed to follow.
- Check what your contract actually defines as gross misconduct, because the wording controls, not the label.
- If you are dismissed with agreed steps skipped, keep the policy and record exactly which steps were missed.
The situation
A senior social workerA legal category that sits between employee and self-employed. Workers are entitled to certain rights including national minimum wage, paid holiday, and protection from unlawful deduction from wages, ... was summarily dismissed after an independent inquiry into the death of a child criticised those involved in her care. Her contract set out a disciplinary procedure, and that procedure said instant dismissal was only available for gross misconductBehaviour serious enough that your employer is entitled to dismiss you immediately without notice. Common examples include theft, violence, or serious dishonesty, but what counts depends on your emplo..., which the contract defined and illustrated with a list of examples. The employer treated the criticism as reason enough to dismiss her on the spot, without first giving her a hearing under that procedure. She brought a claim, arguing the dismissal breached her contract.
What the court found
The Court of Appeal, upholding the High Court, held the employer was not entitled to dismiss without first giving her a hearing under the disciplinary procedure written into her contract. It also held that, on the proper reading of the contract, what she was accused of, gross negligence, was not the same as gross misconduct as the contract had defined it. Because gross negligence did not fall within the contract's meaning of gross misconduct, it did not justify summary dismissal, and skipping the agreed procedure was a breach of contractWhen one party to an employment contract fails to comply with one of its terms without a lawful reason. Your employer breaching a significant term of your contract can entitle you to resign and claim ....
Dietmann v Brent London Borough Council | [1988] ICR 842; High Court [1987] ICR 737 | Court of Appeal | 1988