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Employees might like to feel that what they do in their private life has
got nothing to do with their boss but the reality is more complicated. The
Employment Rights Act 1996 lists several potentially fair reasons for
dismissal and then offers scope for a more general interpretation by
saying a person can be dismissed for “some other substantial reason.”
The
question then becomes what constitutes a substantial reason but there’s no
doubt that it can include a person’s actions outside of work. An obvious
and straightforward example would be something that prevents the person
carrying out their duties.
If an
employee has to drive as part of his work and then loses his licence for
drink driving after a night out then that could be grounds for dismissal.
The employer might have to explore ways to overcome the difficulty such as
the use of public transport or find the employee other duties but if these
remedies aren’t available or not practical then the firm could be
justified in going ahead with dismissal.
Damaging the firm’s reputation is also likely to result in good grounds
for dismissal. A clear cut case might arise if an employee has too much to
drink on a Saturday night and then happens to meet an important client. If
the employee then insults the client or alternatively starts criticise his
own employers then that would clearly damage the firm’s reputation and
could lead to dismissal.
Crimes
or other misdemeanours committed outside work time are less clear cut. For
example, an employee might be convicted of a drugs offence but that would
not necessarily damage the firm’s reputation unless the public or the
firm’s clients were likely to hear about it. That’s almost certainly going
to happen in the case of celebrities who will attract widespread
publicity, but it’s less clear cut with ordinary employees.
Unless
the employers could show that the firm was likely to be damaged by
association with the employee’s actions then it’s unlikely they could
proceed with dismissal.
Employment tribunals are also prepared to take into account how the
actions of one employee are likely to impact on other members of staff.
Many may feel intimidated to be working alongside someone who has been
convicted of a serious offence of violence. They may feel uncomfortable
alongside a convicted thief or sex offender and a tribunal may well agree
that their feelings amount to a justifiable reason for dismissal.
This
is not a clear cut area of law because the challenge is always to try to
reconcile a person’s right to treat his private life as his own with an
employer’s right not to have his business damaged by association with a
disgraced employee.
For
that reason, each case will always have to be taken individually and the
particular circumstances will always have to be examined and carefully
assessed.
In the
meantime, there remains an uneasy truce between the rights of the employer
and the employee. Of course, a firm cannot expect to own its staff and
control every little thing they do. On the other hand, the employee cannot
simply switch off when he leaves work and imagine he’s free to behave
however badly he likes.
Contact Sally on 0115 9886736 for more information.
Email :
Sally Laughton | 
