Legal Question in Business Law in United Kingdom

Unfair Dismissal

my mum has been a marketing manager for 5

years at a company, she's been recently

described as an outstanding manager and

graded as excellent. In her copy of the company's

disciplinary and grievance procedures it states

that: any employee accessing pornographic sites

on any of the company's computers shall be

dismissed without notice. however my little

brother did exactly this on a visit to her work, and

she was immediately dismissed. unfair

dismissal? or not?


Asked on 12/12/01, 4:01 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Richard Howard Richard Howard & CO

Re: Unfair Dismissal

Whether the dismissal was unfair or not depends on whether it constituted a reasonable response by the employer to the accessing of pornographic material via the computer. Even though the disciplinary code states that instant dismissal will follow the dismissal could be unfair if the employer failed to carry out any investigation to confirm that it was in fact the dismissed employee who accessed the pornographic material.

If you consider that no such proper investigation was carried out then the employer may have some difficulty in establishing that the dismissal was fair.

We are aware that there is a similar case being appealed by an employer who lost in the tribunal and this will be heard by the Employment Appeal Tribunal soon.

If you wish to make a claim do not forget you must put in an application within 3 months from the dismissal.

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Answered on 12/13/01, 7:45 am


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