Taking into Account Expired Disciplinary Warnings

In Airbus UK Limited v Webb [2008] EWCA Civ 49, the Court of Appeal found that employers can draw on expired disciplinary warnings when considering the dismissal of an employee. It had previously been the case that employers were not able to rely on or refer to expired warnings in circumstances where dismissal was under consideration.

Mr Webb was employed as an aircraft fitter by Airbus and had been given a final written warning for misuse of company time. This warning was stated to remain on his personnel file for 12 months. A month after the expiration of the written warning, Mr Webb was found watching television with a few of his colleagues and was summarily dismissed. None of his colleagues were dismissed as none of them were in receipt of any previous warnings by Airbus.

The Court of Appeal held that Mr Webb's claim for unfair dismissal failed and Airbus had acted reasonably even though it had relied on an expired disciplinary warning in its decision to dismiss Mr Webb.

This decision provides scope for an employer to draw upon previous similar misconduct in deciding whether or not to dismiss an employee for subsequent misconduct, despite the fact that the previous misconduct was subject to an expired warning.