25/06/2026
Being sure you're right morally doesn't guarantee you'd win legally. That's a difficult point I have to make to small employers pretty often.
This case is a good example to share with you.
In 'Kitaruth v OCS Security Ltd' Mr. Kitaruth, a security manager, travelled 200 miles to Cornwall where he said he was going to 'work from home'. Even the Tribunal doubted that he did any work in the four day period. He missed meetings, didn't respond to emails, and didn't answer calls.
OCS Security sacked him for gross misconduct. Fair enough? Nope - the Tribunal found he'd been unfairly dismissed.
They said the company's decision-making process was flawed. Not only did they fail to investigate sufficiently well (e.g. they didn't interview the line manager Mr. Kitaruth said had given him permission) but the company then didn't hear his appeal for months.
Tribunals have never run on whether an employee morally deserved to lose their job. They don't weigh up how nice a boss you've been over the years. You're judged on whether your decisions came from decent processes - and my experience in this area is why small-business owners are trusting me to come into their teams to carry out grievance and misconduct investigations.
Investigations are early, critical parts of the statutory process. But, as a small-business owner, you're often too close to it all to do it well - it's new to you, emotion is high and the day-job still needs doing. Starting from around £1,500 my investigation service means
- employees see you trying to resolve things fairly & impartially,
- your further decisions are based on professionally gathered facts,
- you can get on with your day-job,
- you're reducing tribunal risk if it were to go that far.
