Sacking a member of staff for Gross Misconduct

Opinion

bryanb wrote: »

OK but you wrote "charged"

Yes- charged with an offence and given a caution.

Opinion

whitewing wrote: »

Do you have a legal helpline as part of your employers' liability insurance?

I would assume so, but today is a Bank Holiday so no go, same with my solicitor, and so hence posting on here looking for some advice.

AbbieCadabra

You might find some useful info here & the owner is a regular on another forum i use, he's highly recommended.

It should be straight forward if he's only been employed for 6 months, but always best to check as there can be exceptions.

motorguy

AbbieCadabra wrote: »

You might find some useful info here & the owner is a regular on another forum i use, he's highly recommended.

It should be straight forward if he's only been employed for 6 months, but always best to check as there can be exceptions.

+1

From memory you can let them go for no reason at all during the first year.

But best to check formally.

Mistral001

Is the offense related to work? If not then I would consult an HR specialist or a solicitor specialising in employment law.

cazziebo

Geez - you're all being a bit unfair here! If Richard Branson, what's his name Bannatyne and Alan Sugar had to know the ins and outs of our very difficult legislative system there would never be any jobs created in the UK!

Dismissals are a minefield and even although I'm ex HR, ex senior manager and director and now run my own business I would usually check with an employment lawyer just to make sure there's no comeback. Many law firms now run specialist services for SMEs. In a case which appears cut and dried as this does I'd guess you're looking at a £200 - £300 bill.

I used to consult and recommend ACAS all the time. I no longer do. They made most of their experts redundant and replaced them with call handlers who read off a script.

(and the employee doesn't have to be proven guilty and convicted; the employer just has to have reasonable cause to dismiss)

Savvy_Sue

And the OP's next step would be to give ALL his employees a written statement of terms and conditions, which should be done with 8 weeks (I think) of starting.

Takeaway_Addict

motorguy wrote: »

+1

From memory you can let them go for no reason at all during the first year.

But best to check formally.

You can dismiss anyone for no reasons within the first 2 years with no comeback, there are some exceptions and its good practise of the employer to be fair.

paddyrg

Whoa a minute! Do you really NEED to go down the route of giving them something they can challenge in court? They've been there less than 2 years, you can drop them for pretty much no reason at all, save all this stress and ACAS etc business.

Takeaway_Addict

OP you should look into employment insurance from companies for correct procedures, it does cost but IMO its worth the money and like insurances you can insure yourself against tribunals to a point that they will pay for solicitors etc and if you lose then you pay the fine only.

It's good if you need to fight a case on principle.