Employee's past can contribute to dismissal despite expired warnings, says judge

An employee's past conduct can be taken into account when dismissing them, even if that conduct was the subject of a written warning which has since expired, the Court of Appeal has ruled.

The judgment reverses a ruling from the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT), which had said that in disciplinary proceedings, employers must disregard previous written warnings if their time limit has expired.

Lord Justice Mummery has said that while the warnings themselves should be disregarded that does not mean that the conduct that lead to the warning cannot be taken into account in later disciplinary proceedings.

"Although the warning penalty and the record of it on the file was time-limited, the misconduct in respect of which it was given was not itself time-limited," he said.

Full story at Out-Law