Dismissed without warning for a mistake

Jsuk

I have just had my employment terminated without notice for "gross misconduct" I made a mistake which cost the company a lot of money, I work for a medium sized company and the small mistake was delivered on a large scale. I have not had any warnings and have not even been spoken to about a small mistake for well over a year, the investigation stated and aligation of "misconduct" but my termination letter says "gross misconduct" on the companys disciplinary procedure it says "careless work" is misconduct and should have a warning procedure, I feel this is what my mistake must come under. 
Every one I've spoke to says this is NOT "gross misconduct and I should have had a warning. I have appealed. 

MeteredOut

It sounds like the small mistake you made did not itself directly cost the company a lot of money, but because it was printed and delivered on a large scale, it did. Is that correct?

Does the company have any process in place to check what you did prior to the print and delivery, and were they followed? eg, was the an opportunity for someone to notice your initial mistake?

Jsuk

Hi, thanks, yes it was a small mistake (ran the wrong plates without corrected pages) if it was a small run job it would not have cost much, sods law it was a big one. There is not checking in place after me, I am supposed to check everything myself and this time didn't properly. The printer could have checked but probably was not told about the corrected pages.

MeteredOut

I don't know the answer here, but it seems wrong (in a moral sense) that had you made the exact same mistake but for a small print run, you probably would not have been dismissed for gross misconduct. I think that's certainly an argument you should be taking forward.

Are you aware of you, or anyone else, ever making that mistake before, with a different outcome?

fatbelly

As you have mentioned, Gross misconduct is well defined by case law

https://www.legal500.com/developments/thought-leadership/what-is-gross-misconduct-workplace-examples/

Remember you have 3 months minus one day to start a claim for unfair dismissal

https://www.acas.org.uk/dismissals/unfair-dismissal

Jsuk

Not that I can recal although I'm sure it's happened, as I say I've worked for them for 20 years. I've done it before when it's been spotted but not for some time. I've spoke to someone who is head of HR in a big company who thinks it's not gross misconduct.. my letters don't explain why it's gross misconduct but they keep saying what a big financial loss it's been to the company.

Hoenir

From the employers perspective. Their view maybe based on the definition below. 

Gross misconduct is behaviour, on the part of an employee, which is so bad that it destroys the employer/employee relationship, and merits instant dismissal without notice or pay in lieu of notice.

Tucosalamanca

Jsuk said:

I've done it before when it's been spotted but not for some time.

This doesn't help your case.

What was the outcome last time, will there be a record of the incident somewhere?

It's not unusual for an employer to say, 'you've made this serious mistake once, do it again and you're gone'.

How frequently do you have training, are written procedures in place and do you follow them?
These could all be critical questions if you choose to pursue it further.

elsien

Have you had a disciplinary hearing at which this decision was made?

Jsuk

Yes. I had a meeting, then was sent a letter with the outcome, that's been done correctly 

Jsuk

Tucosalamanca said:

Jsuk said:

I've done it before when it's been spotted but not for some time.

This doesn't help your case.

What was the outcome last time, will there be a record of the incident somewhere?

It's not unusual for an employer to say, 'you've made this serious mistake once, do it again and you're gone'.

How frequently do you have training, are written procedures in place and do you follow them?
These could all be critical questions if you choose to pursue it further.

I think I got a verbal warning 10 years ago.

A lot of what I do has been automated and I have had no proper training on that system, I part used that and part used the old system as I had to do it that way, the mistake part was done on the original system I still don't understand how it happened but I admitadly should have checked. Also due to the automated system I've spent a lot of time doing other jobs, out in the factory too.