Employers Entitled To Dismiss Employees With Difficult Personalities

The Court of Appeal has handed down its judgment in Perkin v St Georges Healthcare NHS Trust.

It stands as authority for the proposition that employers are entitled to dismiss employees for having a difficult personality, even when they are technically good at their jobs and there are no criticisms of their integrity, on the grounds of 'some other substantial reason'. (Note, on the facts, the dismissal was technically unfair because the decision-maker was biased, but the tribunal declined to award compensation).

It is also authority for the proposition that, in an appropriate case, it is possible to:

::  Have a finding of 100% contributory fault; and,
::  Because of the aggressive way in which the employee defended himself (making allegations of fraud against the Chief Executive of the NHS Trust), any disciplinary panel - even if not chaired by the biased chairperson - would be 100% certain to have dismissed him on the grounds he would not be able to continue working with senior executives of the Trust.

Steve Bellamy - Qdos Consulting Limited

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Posted 03/11/05

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