A recent decision from the Court of Appeal in England & Wales offers clarity into when and how a disciplinary investigation is to take place in employment proceedings, with implications for how employers should approach these situations in the future.
Employment law requires a disciplinary investigation to be undertaken in a manner which is “reasonable in all the circumstances”, to be judged objectively by reference to the “band of reasonable responses” available to an employer.
In a recent case, the Court of Appeal overturned a decision of the High Court in favour of Dr Mian, a senior lecturer at Coventry University, in her claim against the university, her former employer. Dr Mian put forward an argument that by beginning the disciplinary proceedings against her without carrying out a full investigation the university had been in breach of contract, or so negligent as to cause her psychiatric injury.
The Court of Appeal held that the test the High Court judge should have applied to the facts of the case to establish a breach of duty was “whether the decision to investigate the disciplinary proceedings was ‘unreasonable’ in the sense that it was outside the range of reasonable decisions open to an employer in the circumstances”.
This analysis required an “objective” assessment of the facts and was not a decision that was to be made “with the benefit of hindsight”.
Lady Justice Sharp stated that the High Court judge, while correctly establishing the relevant test, did not then apply it. She opined that: “Instead, in substance, he made an assessment of the overall merits, which was influenced so it seems to me by his explicit acceptance of Dr Mian’s account in her evidence to him at the trial about the events in question, rather than considering whether it was reasonable to instigate those proceedings in the first place”.
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