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Employment Tribunals In Australia

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In order to properly address the matter of an employee who is suspected of coming into work under the influence of illegal drugs, we must ensure that we follow the businesses disciplinary processes and if the process leads to it, we must ensure that, the reason for dismissal falls under one or more of the 5 fair reasons under the Employments Rights Act (1996). These reasons can include: • Conduct – includes minor issues such as unauthorised absence to more serious (gross misconduct) issues such as gross negligence or theft. • Capability – unable to complete their role to the required standard this can be due to skills or health. Before any dismissal can take place we must ensure that we conduct a full and fair investigation whilst being conscious …show more content…

In order to ensure that our process is fair and to minimise the risk of an ET claim we must ensure that we work in line with the ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures, which although not a legal requirement, employment tribunal’s will first seek to establish if our process has been carried out in line with it. “If the Acas code has not been followed the tribunal has discretion to adjust awards up or down between 0 and 25% in relation to either party” (CIPD, 2015) In cases of dismissal there is some overlap between the both the Equality Act (2010) and Employments Rights Act (1996). We must ensure that our reason for dismissal does not relate to one of the 9 protected characteristics (either directly or indirectly) and falls within one of the 5 fair reasons for dismissal. A poorly managed dismissal can open the business to the risk of wrongful or unfair …show more content…

They state that “In a wrongful dismissal claim, the employee will not be entitled to pay in lieu of notice or notice pay at all, as the employee has broken the contract and cannot therefore rely on it to claim notice pay. With an unfair dismissal claim, the employer may still be liable to pay compensation depending upon how they handled the dismissal” (CIPD, 2015) The law surrounding unfair dismissal sets out that an employee must be treated fairly throughout the entire disciplinary process. As has been set out above good practice in the case of misconduct stems from the business adhering to the ACAS code of practice, undertaking a full investigation as well ensuring that the decisions made a proportionate to the offence taking into consideration the employee’s previous record. In comparison dismissal for capability is deemed to fair if the business has made the employee aware of the organisations policies and practice and adhered to the ACAS code of practice. We must also ensure that there are clear objectives in place to give “reasonable opportunity to improved and only, then dismissed following a further formal meeting with a right to appeal” (Armstrong & Taylor,

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