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Northern Ireland
Crawford & Anor v Suffolk Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust [2012] EWCA Civ 138
Published on: 24/02/2012
Issues Covered:
Dismissal
Article Authors The main content of this article was provided by the following authors.
Background This case involved two employee nurses who had allegations made against them (and two others) in respect of the treatment of an elderly dementia patient, JE. It had been alleged that they had tied JE to a chair using a sheet wrapped around his upper body and that the chair was tied, using two sheets, to a table. The employees were suspended and the trust determined that an investigation should take place.The investigation found that the chair had been tied to the table and that attempts had been made to secure the patient to his chair with a sheet. The report did not state that that attempt had been successful. It was recommended that the incident be dealt with under the trust's disciplinary policy. Following an internal disciplinary procedure, the allegations were found proved and it was concluded that under the disciplinary rules, the actions constituted an assault, negligence and professional misconduct. The employees appealed internally. The appeal was rejected and the employees were dismissed on grounds of gross misconduct. The employees then issued proceedings in the employment tribunal alleging that they had been unfairly dismissed. The tribunal identified five specific errors in the way in which the disciplinary process had been handled including, inter alia, two procedural defects and the employees‟ appeals succeeded. The trust then appealed to the Employment Appeal Tribunal and the decision was overturned. The employees went on to appeal to restore the decision of the tribunal submitting that there had been no error in the tribunal's analysis. This appeal was allowed and the tribunal's findings of unfair dismissal were restored. The reasoning given for this decision was as follows:-- Under established principles, the tribunal had been entitled to look particularly carefully at the procedures given that not only the particular jobs, but also the employees' ability to pursue their chosen careers, been at stake. 67- The tribunal had implicitly found that that failure with respect to a vital piece of evidence, had meant that the procedures taken overall had been rendered unfair. The error had not been corrected as a result of the appeal hearing.- Although the employees' union representatives had not complained about that procedural defect, it could not be enough for an employer to say that although a fair procedure had not been adopted, the responsibility for having failed to remedy it lay with the employee for failing to alert him to the error. The issue of whether it would be appropriate to reduce the compensation was remitted to the same tribunal for a determination.http://bit.ly/wY4pnU

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Disclaimer The information in this article is provided as part of Legal Island's Employment Law Hub. We regret we are not able to respond to requests for specific legal or HR queries and recommend that professional advice is obtained before relying on information supplied anywhere within this article. This article is correct at 24/02/2012
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