Disciplinary – Is a manager required to meet an employee to hold a disciplinary?

17 August 2023

Is a manager required to meet an employee to hold a disciplinary? Not according to the Employment Appeals Tribunal in the case of Charalambous v National Bank of Greece.

In this case the Claimant had been dismissed for gross misconduct following a data breach. The Claimant had emailed a spreadsheet containing a breakdown of all private clients, commission, turnover, assets and further information to her trade union representative, her lawyer, her personal email address and to her brother who worked at a different bank.

An initial investigation meeting was conducted by the Claimant’s manager who then passed the investigation to another manager who held two face to face meetings with the Claimant and her union representative prior to writing up a full report and passing it back to her manager, who made the decision to dismiss the Claimant without meeting her. The decision to dismiss the Claimant was therefore made solely on consideration of the investigation and the dismissing manager had not met the Claimant to discuss the case prior to dismissing her, although she did have a meeting at appeal stage.

The Claimant brought claims of automatic unfair dismissal on whistleblowing grounds, ordinary unfair dismissal and race discrimination.

The Tribunal found the dismissal to be fair and a reasonable procedure was followed in reaching the decision to dismiss. The EAT later rejected an argument that previous case law established that a dismissal would be unfair if the dismissing manager had not met the employee.

The key premise, they said, was that an employee should be given the chance to adequately explain their position before any subsequent decision was made regarding their employment.

In any event, the Employment Tribunal looked at the procedure adopted by the Respondent as a whole and found that any procedural unfairness in the initial decision to dismiss was sufficiently addressed by the internal appeal, which involved a meeting between the Claimant and the decision-maker.

The EAT held there had been no error of law.

The case serves as an important reminder at how broadly Tribunal’s interpret ‘fairness’. That said, it is always recommended that an employer holds a face-to-face disciplinary meeting with an employee giving them an opportunity to put their case forward, prior to reaching any decision. It is likely to also be a requirement for a face-to-face meeting within your own disciplinary policies and procedure, which will be considered relevant when considering procedural fairness. However, it does provide some comfort that the absence of a face to face meeting in some circumstances will not be altogether fatal to the fairness of a dismissal.

Please contact our employment team here if you require further information or any advice.