If you were aware of the alleged act of misconduct at the time and did not initiate an investigation process, this could have potential implications in relation to the fairness of any subsequent dismissal. In order for a dismissal to be fair, it should not only be for one of the potentially fair reasons (of which misconduct is one), but you must also have acted reasonably in treating that reason as sufficient to justify dismissing the employee. Under the LRA Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures, a meeting should be held with the employee "without reasonable delay".

Further information would be required as to the circumstances of any delay in this particular case but, in general terms, case law has shown that delay will not automatically render an otherwise fair dismissal unfair, but if the delay is substantial and for no good reason, an otherwise fair dismissal is likely to be considered unfair. We recommend that specific legal advice is obtained on this issue.