Scenarios exist where an employer may have to terminate an employee's employment for reasons other than Conduct, Capability or RedundancyDI. Such circumstances are called "Some Other Substantial Grounds" (SOSG) and we have previously looked at this issue in the context of Third part pressure, Statutory Restrictions, or Employers Interests.
Two recent cases in the EAT have shown two very different outcomes based on how the employer handled the situation. The 1st case (UD2274/2010) being an employee who had lost his security license and as he had failed to respond to the company's requests to have this renewed, he was dismissed.
This would fall under the "Statutory Restrictions" heading of SOSG, however the manner in which the employer dealt with this was criticised by the Tribunal and the employee was awarded €6,000. The Tribunal agreed that the employee had the onus of renewing their license however the Company sent correspondence to an address the employee no longer lived at and should have sent it tot he correct address to invite the employee to a meeting to discuss the issue. The Tribunal heard the employer had an early warning system for licenses, and agreed that this was something they were under no obligation to do however they failed to follow their own procedures when dismissing the employee. The award made allowed for the fact that the employee contributed significantly to their dismissal and so made a "small compensation" award.
The 2nd case (UD526/2012) also falls under the "Statutory Restrictions" heading (although the employee was dismissed by reason of redundancy) where an employee was dismissed having failed to obtain the necessary relevant qualifications to continue in the role. The Tribunal found in this case that the employer had informed the employee on several occasions that their qualifications were inadequate and that they needed to get a level 8 HETAC degree which the employee failed to do. The Tribunal held that this was not an unfair dismissal.
