Appeals are hugely important. How they are conducted can mean that you win - or lose - an employment tribunal case.
In a recent case an employer found an employee guilty of misconduct and dismissed him. He appealed and during the hearing he raised a new ‘mitigating’ factor. He said that he had been suffering from severe depression, was on medication to help, and that his depression and the medication he was on contributed to his ‘misconduct’.
The company took the view that:
This sounds perfectly reasonable BUT the appeal process is there to give an employee ‘a second chance’. He used this ‘chance’ to his advantage, which meant that the employer had to reconsider the whole case again taking into account the new information he had provided.
As frustrating as this is for businesses, you do have to re-consider the case at appeal where new information is presented.
In this situation, the company should have conducted a medical investigation, including obtaining an occupational health report, to find out what impact – if any – the employee’s medical condition (and medication he was on) may have had on his conduct.
Their failure to do so proved a costly mistake!
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