The employment tribunal rejected Mrs Gondalia’s claim for unfair dismissal. They found that Tesco held a genuine belief that Mrs Gondalia had committed the misconduct and that it had reasonable grounds to do so for the simple reason that Mrs Gondalia accepted what she had done, although she did not think she had done anything wrong. Mrs Gondalia’s actions fell within the definition of gross misconduct, as set out in Tesco’s employee handbook and it was important for an employer to have trust in its employees, particularly when it comes to money.
Mrs Gondalia appealed to the EAT. She argued that, as her honesty was at issue, the tribunal should have considered the leading criminal case of R v Ghosh when determining whether the conduct was dishonest or not and should have asked: i) was the conduct dishonest in accordance with the ordinary standards of reasonable and honest people?; and ii) did the person realise, according to objective standards, that what he or she was doing was dishonest?
Decision
The EAT found that the omission of any reference to R v Ghosh by the tribunal was not an error of law and questioned how useful it could be to apply a criminal case to an employment context. The EAT stated that the question, to be asked under section 98(4) of the Employment Rights Act 1996, is whether the employer acted reasonably or unreasonably in treating the dishonesty as a sufficient reason for dismissing the employee.
However, the EAT upheld Mrs Gondalia’s appeal, finding the tribunal’s decision of a fair dismissal to be inadequately reasoned and the case was remitted to a fresh tribunal for a rehearing.
Comment
The case makes it clear that section 98(4) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 remains the starting point for tribunals when considering any allegation of dishonesty and the criminal law test for dishonesty does not apply. However, as the allegation against Mrs Gondalia was not expressly one of dishonesty, this area may require further clarification in the future.
