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Employment law

Reasonableness

Once the Employment Tribunal has found that the dismissal was for a potentially fair
reason they must then decide whether ‘on the basis of equity and the substantial
merits of the case’ the employer acted ‘reasonably’. This will be a question of fact
depending on all the circumstances.

Case law shows that this ‘reasonableness test’ involves two questions:

 Whether the reason given was sufficiently serious to justify dismissal.

 Whether the employer adopted reasonable procedures both in coming to the
decision to dismiss and in the manner of dismissal.

Illustration 6 – Unfair dismissal

The following examples would not be considered reasonable:

 If an employee was dismissed without warning (except in the most flagrant
cases)

 If the dismissal was on the grounds of capability or qualifications and the
employer did not allow time for improvement, training and consultation to
discuss areas of difficulty

 If the employer is relying on the grounds of ill health there must be proper
medical evidence

 In the case of misconduct where the employer did not fully investigate the
complaint and did not listen to what the employee had to say by way of
explanation or mitigation.

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