If you believe that your employee may be guilty of a serious theft or crime at work, you may also want to report the matter to the police. Should you then wait until the police finish their investigation or even their prosecution? That could take months. On the other hand, if you proceed with your disciplinary process before the police investigation concludes, will that prejudice a criminal prosecution? This is the dilemma that employers often face in this kind of situation.
In Secretary of State for Justice v Mansfield, the employee was under a police investigation in relation to allegations of planting drugs. His employer brought a disciplinary investigation on the same issues, but postponed it during the police investigation. Mr Mansfield claimed unfair dismissal, saying that the delay in the disciplinary investigation was unreasonable. The Employee Appeal Tribunal however disagreed. In an unfair dismissal case, where an employee faces disciplinary proceedings at the same time being investigated by the police, the EAT took the view that the employer has a wide discretion as to whether to continue or postpone the disciplinary hearing.
Postponing the disciplinary investigation in this kind of situation is all very well, but you won’t want to suspend an employee on full pay for weeks or months whilst the police investigation proceeds at a leisurely pace. There is no easy answer in this kind of situation. Whilst you will of course want to liaise carefully with the police first, you may not be able to afford to delay the disciplinary process, or risk more criminality in the meantime.
James Carmody
RECULVER SOLICITORS
Tel: 0207 324 6271 Fax: 0207 477 2276 info@reculversolicitors.co.uk
12-16 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1M 5PQ*
www.reculversolicitors.co.uk
Regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority: Firm 405070 Principal: James Carmody Consultant: Carol Aylott * Serviced Office. Meetings by Appointment Only
No comments:
Post a Comment