Employee charged with criminal offence was not unfairly dismissed

A recent Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) judgment confirms that it’s not necessarily unfair to dismiss someone because they have been charged with a criminal offence and before their trial has taken place. 


In Lafferty v Nuffield Health UKEATS/0006/19, the EAT confirmed an employment tribunal decision that a hospital porter had been fairly dismissed after he was arrested and charged with assault to injury with intention to rape, despite his claim of innocence and prior to his trial taking place. 


The EAT accepted that dismissal was reasonable because the risk to his employer’s reputation of continuing to employ him when he had access to vulnerable patients was too great. He was subsequently acquitted at his trial, which took place after the tribunal hearing, and was reinstated to his role. 


The EAT said that the tribunal had properly applied the Court of Appeal’s guidance in the case of Leach v The Office of Communications [2012] IRLR 839. 


This accepts that, while dismissal of an employee who has not been found guilty of any offence may cause them injustice, the question for the tribunal is whether the employer had acted reasonably in the circumstances.

www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKEAT/2019/0006_19_1509.html