#Employment : Is it just me or is this setting the wrong example?

[barney2]

I work for a large company, recently I have had contact from an outside firm of solicitors (no win no fee would be my guess) requesting info on an ex employee that was dissmissed for theft. After numerous conversations with our legal team it turns out that the ex employee is trying to take the company to court for unfair dissmissal. How after a dissmisal for theft i dont know, but anyway, it turns out that our company as standard offer an amount under £5000, which is usually accepted. They do this as it costs the company £5000 just to go to court so they see it as a cost cutting method. How can they do this what example is it setting colleagues, its ok you can get dissmissed for theft and get a pay out as well. This has really annoyed me knowing that the colleague stole from colleagues (it was a reward for all colleagues for hard work) and is getting a payout as well. Is this a common practice for larger companys??

[honeybee13]

Hello there and thank you for joining the forum.

 

I for one haven't heard of this practice by employers of our friends and family or on the forum.

 

Did the lawyers tell you anything else please?

 

My best, HB

[elpulpo]

Just to be clear, the solicitors are contacting you trying to get information that supports the case of the ex-employee?

Well, it's up to the employer. It does cost money to defend an application to ET if it goes as far as a hearing, win or lose. I'd be surprised though, if the ET case is entirely without foundation, that they're not contesting the claim. They could request a Pre-Hearing Review, which should show the claim has no prospect of success. Then the claim would either be thrown out, or an order for costs to be paid if it was not successful at full hearing.

Perhaps you don't know the full facts of this persons dismissal, they might have a case.

[barney2]

The company do know the ins and outs of ET's they deal with enough of them. They have just decided that over the yrs it was more cost effective to payout without going any further. It has just really annoyed me that this person was bang to rights so to speak and the whole discipllinary process was text book as they had got off for theft previously on a technicality in the process. The person has a mouth on them and will no doubt ensure that everyone they worked with knows the company paid out. The morale will take a beating but also give a seriously bad idea of what is right and wrong.

[lilly of the valley]

Hi,

 

You ask if this is common practice for large companies, yes it is and they most certainly do not care about the example they may be setting for staff which remain, I agree with elpulpo, the ex-employee may well have a case, these matters always go deeper than what we think.

 

L x

[elpulpo]

Well, if the person 'has a mouth' they need to be careful. Compromise Agreements routinely have a confidentiality clause, and he/she starts boasting about having settled they're likely to find themselves in court.