Letter confirming decision of employee appeal against performance dismissal

What is a letter confirming decision on employee appeal against performance dismissal and when should you use it?

This is the last letter in your performance improvement process.

Once the Appeals process has been completed and a decision made, the performance improvement process is at an end.

This letter contains several drafting options, designed to reflect the different conclusions you may have reached:

• To stick to your earlier decision to dismiss the employee – i.e. nothing has changed
• To revoke your earlier dismissal decision, which has the effect of it never having been made (the employee is reinstated on their earlier employment terms
• To vary your earlier dismissal decision, which you will need to explain

If you choose on appeal to take a less severe route than dismissal, such as redeploying the employee to another part of the business or demoting them, you should check the terms of the employment contract to confirm what rights you have to action these alternatives.

The WRC Code recommends that you should inform the employee of the outcome of the appeal in writing as soon as possible after the hearing.

It’s highly advisable to explain the reasons for your decision in a reasonable level of detail.

In each case, this letter prompts you to make clear why you’ve reached this decision.

It also expressly states that this is your final decision in the process and there are no further rights of appeal under the performance improvement process.

The decision taken at the appeal stage is equally open to scrutiny as the original decision.

It should never be a rubber-stamping exercise.

Take care to ensure that you have addressed each ground of appeal that the employee has raised.