These questions are being answered by Learn HR, a market leader in the provision of HR and payroll training and nationally-recognised professional qualifications.
Q: What exactly is gross misconduct?
A: Gross misconduct is behaviour that is so serious that it constitutes a fundamental breach of the contract and would make continuation of the employment relationship intolerable. You need to publish examples to your employees and these are likely to include harassment and bullying, assault, stealing, and serious breach of health and safety regulations. Although an employee’s particularly bad behaviour is not listed you may still treat it as gross misconduct if it meets the definition in the first sentence of this reply. You must always investigate and hold a disciplinary hearing and then, if you are satisfied that it was gross misconduct, you may dismiss without notice.
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