LEGAL ASPECTS OF BUSINESS: Employee Rights and Misconduct

This report analyzes a case study involving a cafeteria owner, Adam, who suspects an employee, Jane, of theft. The report delves into the legal framework surrounding employee rights, particularly the Equality Act 2010, which protects against discrimination. It explores different types of workplace discrimination, including direct and indirect discrimination, harassment, and victimization. The core of the report focuses on the process of investigating employee misconduct, outlining the necessary steps such as organizational preparation, investigator preparation, investigation meetings, gathering evidence, report writing, and post-investigation actions. The report also references the Employment Act 2002, specifically concerning employee rights during maternity leave. The application section discusses the legal considerations for dismissing an employee based on misconduct, highlighting relevant case law and the complexities Adam faces in this situation. The report emphasizes the importance of conducting a thorough investigation before making any decisions and the potential legal ramifications of wrongful dismissal, especially concerning pregnant employees.

LEGAL ASPECTS OF
BUSINESS

Table of Contents
ISSUE..............................................................................................................................................1
LAW................................................................................................................................................1
Application.......................................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

ISSUE
In the given case, Adam is an individual who owns a small cafeteria in London and
employs number of part time staff members who wait on tables and work behind the counter
(Lefever, 2012). In past few months Adam's realised that takings are not matching with receipts
and he is short by a few hundred pounds. As all the members of staff have access to till and work
behind the counter on rotational basis. Adam mentioned about missing money to staff in a
meeting. After meeting, a staff member Jane appeared quite agitated when this explanation was
given. This puts Jane in suspicious position and another staff member also informed Adam that
Jane was acting suspiciously while ringing an order into till. Adam asked Jane to meet him in his
office, as he wanted to talk about missing money. Jane got agitated and when she came to meet
Adam she said she is pregnant and she will need to take maternity leave in few months. Now,
Adam is confused as he does not any proof against Jane to find her culprit for steeling money
and dismiss her. On the other side he also heard many stories about pregnant women who suing
their employers for wrongful dismissal during pregnancy time.
LAW
EQUITY ACT, 2010
The equity act, 2010 legally protracts people from discrimination at workplace and in
wider society. This law replaces various other provisions and make the law easier to understand
and strengthening protection in some situations. Equity act, 2010 have various compliance that
need to be followed by employees and employer at workplace. This act contains certain
situations that are termed as unlawful to certain persons. This act is applicable when
discrimination is done on basis of age, disability, marriage and civil partnership, gender
reassignment, sex, religion and belief, sex orientation (Lambooy, 2014). This act protects one
from discrimination under various situations some are as follows-
 Discrimination at workplace on basis of gender
 Discrimination in public services such as law, education in schools and collages
 When business organisation serves public at large in restaurant cinema halls
 While providing transportation services
 When a person joins club and organisations
 Discrimination in public bodies like government departments while serving nation.
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Different types of discrimination in an organisation some of them are as follows-
Discrimination means treated unfairly because of who you are, where you belongs from
and various other reasons.
Direct discrimination is when employer treats one of its employee differently and worst
because of who you are. This discrimination is done because of age, colour, religion and cast.
Example, preference for promotion is given to a particular employee is given because of young
age as old age people become less efficient then young blood.
Indirect discrimination is when a policy or rules applied to everyone in the same
manner but has worst effect on one or more people from all the people to whom such policy or
rules apply. This discrimination puts some persons at certain disadvantage. Example, rules and
polices that are applied on a religion and gender.
Harassment means illegal behaviour towards a person that causes mental and emotional
suffering, which includes unwanted contacts, insults, touching, threats or offensive language.
This type of behaviour is done to trouble a particular person. Harassment violates dignity and
creates a humiliating work environment are defined in the above case of Adam. Example, to
crack a joke on financial status of a person (Mitten and et.al., 2015.).
Victimisation means punishing and threatening to punish someone. It is against the law
to punish someone because they have rights under equal opportunity of law. This is done at
workplace to threaten an employee so no complains are made to management. As per sobve case
study, complain about indifferent pay because of sex discrimination at workplace. In the given
case, the accusation on Jane is a clear mental stress which is a form of harassment as there is no
proofs of her guilt.
Structure of investigation:
Investigation is termed as careful examination of facts and evidences to find reality and
prove an alligation. Investigation is done to collect proofs that provides clarity regarding who is
guilty or who's fault is involved in a particular work. In this case Adam do not posses any
evidence that proves Jane is a culprit for shortage in money. To collect proof against this Adam
needs to make a proper investigation that brings true culprit out of the shade and if Jane is found
to be a culprit then proper punishment will be granted to her. As Jane can not be dismissed on the
basis of suspicious belief. Process of investigation has many steps that are as follows-
Step-1 Organisational preparation:
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 Necessity of investigation: Organisation have different issues some of them are
important and some of them are not. Adam needs to decide whether this matter of money
steeling is need to be investigated or not. This decision based on depth of the issue
involved. If the issue can be solved by simple actions then no investigation will be done.
 Terms of references: Before going forward with the investigation, Adam needs to set
terms on the basis of which investigation process will start. This includes role and
responsibilities that a investigator needs to perform. Matter that is to be investigated and
his recommendation, presentation of the findings etc.
 Selecting an investigator: Organisation that have very complex cases required to hire
separate investigator. Adam has a small cafeteria with limited operations and staff and
small issue of missing cash can be resolved by Adam himself. Appointing additional
investor will require more cost (Géczy, Izumi and Hasida, 2012).
Step 2- Preparation by Investigator
 Preparing an investigating plan: Before making investigation, a plan must be prepared
which will cover facts that needed to be produced during investigation. It will also help to
cover all the area without missing any single area of transaction in which investigation
needs to be done.
 Identifying witnesses of the case: Staff that is working in cafeteria with Jane are witness
to whole situation. Staff can tell about any suspicious activity which is seen by them or
any change in behaviour of Jane in recent time. Since all the staff members have access
to till, Adam on rational basis can question to any member of the staff. Colleagues of
Jane can inform Adam if there is any activity done by Jane in past two months that can
develop doubt on her.
 Evidences to be collected and how: Adam needs to find various sources from where
evidences that proves Jane as culprit for steeling money be generated. He can verify
accounts of past two months and also record times when cast become short. Attendance
register must be checked to conform that Jane was present on that day or not. Also
recording to cameras must be checked before making any decision.
 Communicate to parties involved: Decision of any investigation is not proper if it is
taken without giving opportunity of being heard to the concerned party. Before
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dismissing Jane a notice of investigation must be provided to her and fair chance is
provided to prove her innocence.
Step 3: Investigation meeting
To investigate the situation Adam is responsible to hold suitable meeting with the entire
staff member those were present at the time when Jane was rotated to work behind the counter
and had access to the till. He hold meeting in order to gather as much information and evidence
as possible. Adam must ask relevant question from each staff member to find plentiful. Once an
information is collected and evidence are arranged than required action will be taken but not
suddenly (Kemp, 2014). To make any decision and action Adam will have to arrange a meeting
again in future after proper investigation. From the case scenario, Adam have doubt on Jane so
he want to talk separately with her to listen her view point. In case, if Jane is not comfortable
than she may take other staff member as a witness to prove her allegation wrong and clear doubt.
Investigation meeting will support in future to prove imposed allegation. So these meeting must
be properly managed and descriptive that display date, place and name of member those will be
part of investigation.
Step 4: Gathering information and evidence.
It is very important to have a faithful and accurate information and evidence. Because
unless and until evidence are not appropriate it is not possible to prove culprit wrong. So Adam
must collect the relevant grounds that help to make report and facts to make Jane Culprit. Adam
once gather the information then he has to make sure that these are reliable and credible that will
help to turn out Jane allegation. For assembling information, Adam must regard witness signed
text in which the witness(s) has granted his/her statement. In statements of witness there are
certain detail that provide the effective information such as name, designation, place, accurate
time and main intention of writing statements with the authorised signature. Adam can collect
evidence from various sources such as proper inspection of record books, attendance sheet and
clipping of particular time period. Further he may also check Jane family background and past
happening that help him to collect more transparent information. But in case Jane deny for
investigation then Adam could directly take strict action against her and file a complaint.
Step 5: Write investigation report
Once proper information has been collected then the main point is to develop an report on
the basis of evidence (Barker and Branson, 2014). Adam will create an investigated report that
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will disclose all the assorted and collected information against Jane. In this report all the
produced and gather facts have to be covered and in end of report there must be clearly mention
about the sources of information weather from cafeteria or from outside. Basically report must
cover introduction about Adam, Overview of issue, process used to gather information etc. It
must also cover the detail about the investigated member and summary in the last.
Step 6: After completed investigation.
It is observed that after the entire investigation and preparation of final report no
additional evidence could be added with the report. As now Adam will disclose the entire case
with all staff member with the help of prepared report and take judgement. This will also support
in making the old polices of company so that this situation never arise in future. In case, if Jane
is not able to prove herself than Adam must make decision to dismiss her and make sure that any
other staff member must not tries to break laws and rules of cafeteria.
Employment act 2002: This act mainly contains the rights and safeguards to employees
in different workplace phases like maternity, eternity leaves, provident and statuary payments.
Chapter 2 contains the legislation related to rights during and after maternity leave (Employment
Act 2002, 2018).
Application
From the above case, it has been observed that Adam wants to dismiss Jane because of
her action and misconduct that is against company laws. In general if any one found to be guilt
and gross misconduct then he/she must be dismissed from the entity they are working. There are
numerous example that will be helpful for Adam to make decision to dismiss Jane or not. It is
observed that Adam is not able to make decision because there are some factors that are making
him worry (Beiker, 2012). In general “Gross” misconduct is related to the behaviour of an
individual that may be on of the serious reason to decrease the profitability and reputation of
company. Some of the practical case law examples are discussed below:
Example 1:
Concept: A worker name John has been dismissed for reason of misconduct because he
use to stole things from the factory where he use to work. He was found to be culprit because
John was the only worker at that day.
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Issue: In this case the main issue raise when the owner did not provide the reliable
evidence and refuse to display the clipping of video for that day. John again and again tries to
collect the footage but not able to get anything as he says that he never does such thing.
Conclusion: In the end, from the above case it has been concluded that John must file a
complaint in because he was right from his side and was dismissed by unfair practices. In case if
owner agreed to provide the clipping of video than there would be a chance that John may prove
all allegations wrong.
Example 2:
Concept: From the case of Arnold Clark and Auto-mobiles Ltd. V Spoor, it has been
observed that an employee could be dismissed from office without any official notice because of
gross misconduct. Mr. Spoor was not happy with the new trainee and had a fight with him which
was a disrespect to the rule of the company and created an atmosphere of disturbance. He lost his
temper and grabbed the collar of the trainee. In last, HR has written a letter to high authority
describing about the incident and action to be taken. Manager of Human resource found it a case
of misconduct and dismissed Mr Spoor from company (Pathak, 2013).
HR implore that the company had a zero-tolerance policy violence according to which
any employee found culprit is going to be dismissed from company. But Mr Spoor admitted that
he was wrong and wants to apologise to the trainee. Mr. Spoor brought assertion in the
Employment Tribunal for partial dis-mission, breach of contract and company fail to provide
official notice.
Issue: The main concern is that if company want to dismiss an employee, they have to
provide official letter of dismissal. Mr spoor asked the company to provide proper ground for his
dismissal and have a detail investigation of the circumstances.
Conclusion: From the case scenario, it was been concluded that investigation attempted
by ACA was not according to the rules and proper evidence. It was observed that company does
not provide legal and valid ground to dismissed such a old staff member. The employment
tribunal determined that MR Spoor was also responsible for his dismissal as he attempt to hit an
employee during office work (pjhlaw.co.uk/).
ACA request and ET discharged the petition. It was consider that partial judgement law
in company should must be based on mitigatory factors if gross misconduct is constituted. The
determination was founded by the two subject. Such as, there was no information that
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organization had never operated a no tolerance policy in the past. Secondly, the ACA's
disciplinary policy was double on the section of dismissed employees.
So from the above case example, it would be easy for Adam to make decision and
dismissed Jane (Beamish, 2013). There are some other laws that could be look upon by Adam to
make more accurate decision. Some of these are:
 Pendleton v Derbyshihre Country Council and another (EAT)
 Grange v Abellio London Ltd.
 Phoenix House Ltd. V Stockman and another (EAT)
 G4S Cash Solution (UK) Ltd. V Powell
 Metriline West Ltd. V Ajaj.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussed case, it has been concluded that one of the important act is
Equality Act 2010 that help to protect the duties and right of employees working in company. It
is very crucial to have a proper investigation and information must be collected in proper manner
so that decision are made. It is concluded that if any employee is doubt to be culprit then they
must be provided equal chance to prove allegation wrong. There are different laws and rules that
could be used to make valuable decision. In the above case, Adam should conduct an
investigation to collect proofs against Jane. If she found guilty, she can be dismissed on the basis
of evidences collected by proper investigation.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Beamish, P., 2013. Multinational joint ventures in developing countries (RLE international
business). Routledge.
Pathak, A., 2013. Legal Aspects of Business. Tata McGraw-Hill Education.
Beiker, S. A., 2012. Legal aspects of autonomous driving.Santa Clara L. Rev. .52. p.1145.
Barker, R. L. and Branson, D. M., 2014. Forensic social work: Legal aspects of professional
practice. Routledge.
Kemp, R., 2014. Legal aspects of managing Big Data.Computer Law & Security Review. 30(5).
pp.482-491.
Géczy, P., Izumi, N. and Hasida, K., 2012. Cloudsourcing: managing cloud adoption. Global
Journal of Business Research. 6(2). pp.57-70.
Mitten, M. J. And et.al., 2015. Eligibility and disqualification recommendations for competitive
athletes with cardiovascular abnormalities: task force 15: legal aspects of medical
eligibility and disqualification recommendations: a scientific statement from the
American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology. Journal of the
American College of Cardiology. 66(21). pp.2447-2450.
Lambooy, T., 2014. Legal aspects of corporate social responsibility. Utrecht J. Int'l & Eur. L.
.30. p.1.
Lefever, K., 2012. New media and sport: International legal aspects. Springer Science &
Business Media.
Online
Employment Act 2002, 2018. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/22/part/1/chapter/2>
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