An employment tribunal has found that a retailer, Asda, acted unfairly in dismissing an employee for showing customers a colleague’s publicly available social media profile. While the tribunal acknowledged that the employee’s actions were inappropriate, it ruled that the investigation was incomplete, procedurally flawed, and that dismissal fell outside the range of reasonable responses.
The judgment revealed that the employer failed to provide evidence of updated data protection training or ensure the employee understood relevant policies. Crucially, the employee was never given a fair opportunity to respond to assumptions of malicious intent, and mitigating factors such as their apology and cooperation were not considered.
The outcome reinforces the importance of maintaining current policy training, recording employee awareness of key and evolving procedures, and ensuring disciplinary decisions are grounded in transparent, fair, and evidence-based investigations. It serves as a reminder that procedural integrity is as critical as the conduct under examination.
