Grove Properties is a large estate agency with a number of offices in London. In its Islington office Grove Properties employs 25 people. The partners are Antonio and Nisha and they run a very busy property sales and letting agency.
Most people employed by the firm work as sales negotiators. They take on clients who wish to sell or rent their property and then negotiate sales or lettings on behalf of their clients. There are fifteen sales negotiators in the office including two managers, one responsible for sales and one for lettings. In addition, there are a number of secretaries who make appointments, answer the telephone and do the office typing. They work shifts to ensure that there is always at least one secretary in the office at all times to take calls from clients and potential buyers. They must cover the office telephones from 8.30am to 6.30pm Monday to Friday and from 10.00am to 2.00pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Two sales negotiators – Jiksha and Natasha – have previously worked as secretaries for the agency.
Tom works in the Lettings department. He has worked in his job for three years and has just been promoted. Tom has been quite successful at Grove Properties but since promotion has had to work quite hard just to keep up with the new requirements of the job. The increasing stress Tom has had to face has resulted in him drinking heavily. There have been a number of episodes where he has turned up for work drunk and he often slurs his speech when talking to clients. Tom has a large amount of responsibility for all the letting schedules and he is solely responsible for ensuring that all the members of his team have a detailed schedule for showing property to potential clients. There have been several recent incidents where confusion has occurred for customers turning up to view property and a couple of customers have actually been turned away by Tom when things have got too busy. Tom also deals with peoples’ flat deposits and he has managed to get into a muddle with the company money and his own bank account.
In addition to the problems Tom has been having in work, his drinking has also led to problems in his personal life. He has been in trouble with the police for being drunk and disorderly. Tom is worried that if his employer finds out about his run-in with the police they will be able to dismiss him legally.
Antonio and Nisha realise that they have staffing problems which could have legal implications. They therefore have asked you for your advice on the possible legal consequences of the above situations.
Question:
Tom has found out that Antonio knows about the problems he has been having at work. Tom is even more worried that Antonio will find out about his run-in with the police.
Advise Antonio whether he is legally able to dismiss Tom and explain to him what he would need to do to avoid a claim of unfair dismissal. You should refer to relevant legislation and case law.