Two Employment Tribunal judgments published in recent days reiterate the need to follow disciplinary procedures to the letter and to consider whether the sanction is one a reasonable employer would impose. Falsifying Time Sheets When Working From Home In the case of Ms S Wiltshire v Bath Spa University Students Union, Ms Wiltshire was alleged to have been falsifying timesheets when she was working from home. Bath Spa had concerns about Ms Wiltshire’s performance and they decided to investigate with the employer’s IT department. Upon investigating the Microsoft 365 logs, it was clear there was a major discrepancy between the hours Ms Wiltshire was logging in her manual logs and the ones displayed by the Microsoft logs. For example, it was evident that Ms Wiltshire was reporting her start time as one time like 9am but she was actually logging in far later according to the Microsoft logs. One of the most egregious incidents was Ms Wiltshire manually logging 5 hours of work but the Microsoft logs showed she only logged in for 11 minutes. The Tribunal found that Bath Spa SU had thoroughly followed their disciplinary procedure, including a full investigation and then a fair and reasonable disciplinary hearing. Of particular note, the employer made several adjustments to the disciplinary hearing to help Ms Wiltshire who had been signed off sick with work-related stress during the investigation period. For example, the employer gave Ms Wiltshire more time to review evidence at the hearing than usual. Adjustments like this mean the employer can show they went out of their way to facilitate the hearing in the fairest manner possible, even where the employee was not disabled for discrimination law purposes. Sleeping Security Guard Unfairly Dismissed The Employment Tribunal published their decision in the case of Mr C Okoro v Bidvest Noonan (UK) Ltd which raised some eye-brows in the employment law world. Mr Okoro was a security guard at the Milton Keynes Xscape Centre, a random spot check by a Manager found Mr Okoro asleep at his post. Upon investigation, it was clear that Mr Okoro had been asleep for around 15-minutes. The Tribunal did not accept Mr Okoro’s excuse that he had not been asleep but had been medically advised to “close his eyes and look away from the monitors to avoid dry eyes”. The Tribunal had no problem with the investigation or procedure, but they did take issue with the decision to dismiss Mr Okoro. The Tribunal found that a reasonable employer would not have dismissed Mr Okoro due to his clean record over 16 years in the job, the conduct was involuntary, and there were no serious consequences of his sleeping. The Tribunal further said that Mr Okoro should have been given a final written warning. The key takeaway from this case is that Tribunals are a) unpredictable at times but b) that length of service and disciplinary records has serious weight when it comes to the reasonableness of a disciplinary sanction. Conclusion Both cases had different outcomes for the employers but they showed the value of a well-investigated misconduct allegation. Although the employee won the case in Okoro, his award was low which is no doubt down to the thoroughness of the employer’s investigation and believe that the misconduct occurred. Collating evidence such as CCTV and IT records can be vital, any reasonable line of enquiry should be followed up on to give yourself the best chance of defending a Tribunal claim should one arise. As always, this advice is general in nature and will need to be tailored to any one particular situation. As an RMI member you have access to the RMI Legal advice line, as well as a number of industry experts for your assistance. Should you find yourself in the situation above, contact us at any stage for advice and assistance as appropriate. Motor Industry Legal Services Motor Industry Legal Services provides fully comprehensive legal advice and representation to UK motor retailers for one annual fee. It is the only regulated law firm in the UK which specialises in motor law and motor trade law. MILS currently advises over 1,000 individual businesses within the sector as well as the Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMI) and its members.