For the first time in the 19-year history of a PWC study analysing why top executives leave in the world’s 2,500 largest companies, dismissals of CEOs for ethical lapses were a higher proportion than dismissals for poor financial performance or because of board tussles. In the burger chain’s case, the board voted to terminate Mr Easterbrook’s employment contract after investigating his relationship with an employee, which violated company policy. However, regardless of your personal views on the necessity of Mr Easterbrook’s dismissal, we must ask whether he has any form of legal redress in employment law. Was Mr Easterbrook unfairly dismissed?
As with the majority of employment law, this is not a straightforward question and requires contextual knowledge of the situation. Whether the dismissal was fair will ultimately hinge on whether McDonalds conducted a procedurally fair process when investigating and making the determination that dismissal was the appropriate course of action to take.
The hypothetical employment tribunal must decide whether the employer’s decision to dismiss the employee fell within a range of reasonable responses that an objective reasonable employer in those circumstances and in that business might have adopted. It is easy for McDonalds to hide behind their policy handbook, but was it objectively reasonable for them to dismiss him for breaching it?
There are no easy answers, with scope for either party to argue for or against the reasonableness of the dismissal. As stated above, contextual knowledge is vital to being able to fully advise.
Similar to a Mcflurry, an unfair dismissal claim can become messy rather quickly!
To make sense of it all, and to assist you in bringing or defending an employment claim, please get in contact with our Employment Department.
