Determining Reasonableness of Dismissal

The recent Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) case of the University of Warwick v Mr Gray concerned the dismissal of a swimming pool attendant who wrongly, along with some colleagues, entered his sports centre after a student's pyjama party.

The original tribunal decided that the dismissal was unfair, and the University appealed the ruling on the basis that the tribunal had substituted its own view rather than applying the band of reasonable responses.

The case centred on consideration of the evidence, and making a distinction between evidence that was available to the employer at the time the decision to dismiss Mr Gray was made, and the evidence that was available to the tribunal.