Employer’s investigation unreasonable in the circumstances

In Stuart v London City Airport the EAT overturned a tribunal’s decision that

In Stuart v London City Airport the EAT overturned a tribunal’s decision that a dismissal for misconduct was fair. The allegation against Stuart, made by a shop assistant, was very serious , i.e. that he was attempting to steal goods from the duty free shop, by concealing them under his jacket. However, Stuart denied stealing the items, or concealing them, and believed he had never left the shop. But the employer only considered the evidence of the shop assistant, had not interviewed other witnesses who had interacted with Stuart at the time and had failed to review readily available CCTV footage. The additional evidence put forward by Stuart could have supported his case, but had not been explored. Therefore the investigation had been unreasonable, particularly where Stuart’s honesty was in question, and to say that the employer had reasonable grounds to believe he had been dishonest was perverse.

Comment: The well-known Burchell test applies in a suspected misconduct dismissal case, i.e. an employer must establish that it had reasonable grounds for believing the employee to be guilty of misconduct by carrying out as much investigation as was reasonable. Here the employer fell well short of the reasonable investigation test, particularly where, as the case of A v B [2003] IRLR 405 tells us, an investigation must include evidence that is likely prove somebody's innocence, particularly where a person’s honesty is in question.

Read more

Latest News

Read More

How to avoid survey fatigue and maintain engagement

2 April 2025

Newsletter

Receive the latest HR news and strategic content

Please note, as per the GDPR Legislation, we need to ensure you are ‘Opted In’ to receive updates from ‘theHRDIRECTOR’. We will NEVER sell, rent, share or give away your data to third parties. We only use it to send information about our products and updates within the HR space To see our Privacy Policy – click here

Latest HR Jobs

As our new Director of HR, you will be at the forefront of creating the Land Registry of the future, ensuring that we have the

Support the continuous improvement of the HR function through development and implementation for all HR programs in an assigned geography or assigned business line. Lead

Support the continuous improvement of the HR function through development and implementation for all HR programs in an assigned geography or assigned business line. As

Human Resources Manager Full time role – based in our Haringey Headquarters Join a leading social care organisation dedicated to transforming lives through exceptional home

Read the latest digital issue of theHRDIRECTOR for FREE

Read the latest digital issue of theHRDIRECTOR for FREE