Inability to Appeal in Grievance Procedure did not Render Dismissal Unfair

In A Bashir (2) V Bashir v Sheffield Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (2010) UKEAT/0448/09/ZT, a group of employees appealed against the Employment Tribunal's decision that their employer had not wrongfully or unfairly dismissed them. It was found that the fact that the employees could not appeal against the grievance panel's finding was the product of their decision, despite being advised of the consequences, to have their grievance registered in the final stage of the grievance procedure.

The employees had raised a grievance of race discrimination against their colleagues. The employees (a) requested that the hearing be dealt with at the final stage of their employer's grievance procedure, from which there was no appeal stage, and (b) did not attend the hearing. The employer decided that the employees had raised the grievances in bad faith which, in addition to their irreparable working relationship with those accused, gave grounds for summary dismissal.

It was held that the employees' inability to appeal internally against the finding that they had raised the grievances in bad faith, or to challenge that finding at a subsequent disciplinary hearing, was partly a result of their registering their grievances in the final stage of the procedure, and the lack of a challenge at the disciplinary hearing had been in the context of their choosing not to engage with the disciplinary process at all. Consequently, their dismissals were not unfair.