An employee has succeeded in his personal grievance claim for unjustified dismissal in the Employment Relations Authority.

The employee had received seven warnings for poor performance and was dismissed on the eighth occasion.  However, the employer got every part of the process wrong.

It:

1. Suspended the employee without any opportunity to give input before the suspension.
2. Did not tell the employee it was investigating allegations.
3. Did not give enough detail of the allegations to enable the employee to respond adequately.
4. Failed to issue any warnings about the first 3 allegations until after four more alleged incidents.
5. Then issued seven warnings without raising any of the 4 new allegations with the employee.
6. Dismissed the employee without any investigation of the eighth incident.
7. Did not tell him it was investigating the 8th allegation.
8. Did not give him any opportunity for a support person.
9. Did not take his explanations into account.

All the warnings, the suspension, and the dismissal were held to be unjustified, and the employee was awarded his lost wages and $10,000 compensation for the hurt and humiliation suffered from the poor processes.

The bottom line: 7 warnings done incorrectly did not make dismissal for the 8th incident justified.