Disciplinary Hearings

An employee’s dismissal was fair – where they had received a final written warning for misconduct – and their employer held another disciplinary hearing in relation to the same misconduct and two new allegations of misconduct which led to the employee’s dismissal: Pinto v Gloucestershire NHS Primary Care Trust [EAT/0351/09].

The employee had agreed that the previous and new allegations of misconduct could be heard together at the disciplinary hearing in exchange for putting aside the final written warning. In addition to this, the employee did not challenge the evidence presented by their employer in relation to any of those allegations.

Comment

The employee’s final written warning had not expired at the time of the disciplinary hearing. Therefore, if the hearing was only related to the new allegations of misconduct – the employee’s dismissal may still have been fair - since their employer could have considered the unexpired disciplinary warning.