Serious and repeated errors justify a fair dismissal.

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Conesa Legal

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How to achieve a fair dismissal: the assessment of the seriousness of the grounds for dismissal rests with the judge. However, it is the company that bears the burden of proof, since it is the company that brings the allegations. In most cases, the outcome of litigation turns on the evidence. In HR matters, clients should have the best employment lawyer on board from day one, not only to shape the evidence strategy, but to assess how to prove the facts at trial.
In this case, the business owner chose to defend in court the decision she had taken to dismiss her head of accounts. She did so despite the relatively low amount at stake, as the unfair dismissal compensation would have been only €2,322.43 (the employee had less than one year's service).
The head of accounts had committed serious errors in the performance of his duties: significant irregularities in the filing and settlement of VAT returns; serious accounting failures such as processing duplicate invoices; losing invoices; paying invoices without recording them in the accounts; failing to issue payment remittances; omitting charges to clients; and other similar failings.
The employment tribunal found that, although these errors had been established and proven in evidence, they were not sufficient to classify the dismissal as fair.
The High Court of Justice of Catalonia, in its ruling 695/2014 of 30 January 2014, overturned the employment tribunal's ruling, holding that there was a clear lack of diligence, amounting to negligence, in the duties undertaken by the employee in question, constituting a serious breach of the obligations of loyalty and good faith inherent in the employment relationship, and that the grounds for dismissal relied upon by the company were accordingly made out.
The High Court of Justice held that the acts and conduct set out in the dismissal letter, having been proven at trial, justified the dismissal as fair, given the technical expertise and high level of responsibility properly expected of a "Head of Finance and Administration".
The final outcome of this matter remains to be seen, as no settlement could be reached due to the employee's insistence on claiming a substantial number of overtime hours. The company not only doubts that these hours can be proven, since they did not occur, but also, in response to that claim, announced a counterclaim against the employee for damages arising from his accounting irregularities, which the company estimates at approximately €27,280.