Does an email dismissal live up to procedural requirements?

A worker fired via email after failing to complete an important work task was unjustifiably dismissed, according to an Employment Relations Authority ruling.

The case, which serves as an important reminder for employers that a spur-of-the-moment dismissal may not meet legal requirements, concerned a timber operations company employee. The company asserted that it provided the worker with several performance warnings throughout the course of his employment.

In November 2019, the worker’s employer instructed him to fit and torque the wheels of a trailer. The employer inspected the trailer the following day to discover that the worker had failed to do so. Considering this the “final straw”, the employer sent the worker a termination email that evening. The worker applied to the Employment Relations Authority, seeking a finding that his dismissal was unjustified.

The hearing

The company submitted that, while there may have been a “lack of formality” in its dismissal process, the procedural deficiencies were minor and “did not result in [the worker] being treated unfairly”. It also asserted that the worker’s failure to torque the trailer wheels was serious misconduct which could have caused a major accident, injury, or death.

The Authority found that, while the company showed “an enormous amount of tolerance” with the worker, it failed in almost every aspect of its investigation and dismissal process. It noted that the company did not communicate with the worker about his failure to torque the wheels nor provide him with an opportunity to respond to his dismissal.

Judgment

“It is not the case that an employer can simply assume an employee has failed to do something and this justifies dismissal without any enquiry or attempt to understand why the employee did what he did,” the Authority said.

Finding the procedural failings were “sufficiently significant”, the Authority concluded that the worker was unjustifiably dismissed. It ordered that the company pay the worker $13,500 in compensation and $7,170 in lost earnings.

Key Takeaways

• Employers should ensure employees are aware of the expected level of performance and the consequences of not reaching that level
• Employers should provide employees with an opportunity to improve their performance before dismissing them
• Employers should take care to ensure that dismissal via email lives up to procedural requirements
• The case above demonstrates that the Authority is unlikely to be sympathetic towards a dismissal process that is procedurally unfair