Gloria has been employed by Modem Family Limited for 10 years carrying out administrative support tasks of a wide variety: Employment Law and Practice Assignment, LMU, UK

Scenario

Gloria has been employed by Modem Family Limited for 10 years carrying out administrative support tasks of a wide variety. Modem Family Ltd’s director Jay has always looked on her as a very competent employee, and she has never been the subject of any disciplinary hearing or proceedings in all the time she has been with the firm. Last month, however, Jay discovered that Gloria has made a number of significant errors in her bookkeeping work that caused the firm’s main account to go into overdraft (this is what alerted Jay to the fact that something might be amiss).

Upon investigation, Jay also discovered that Gloria had also failed to make the VAT return for the last two periods or to remit the VAT amounts to HMRC. When Jay went to investigate what might have happened, he discovered that Gloria had been running her own Air BnB business during office hours for the last four years without permission but disguised that fact from her colleagues. Jay flew into a rage when he discovered this and had to be calmed down by Mitchell, the firm’s accountant.

When he did calm down, he issued an email, on a Friday, to Gloria to tell her to come to his office the following Monday at 8.30 am to ‘discuss some serious issues that might have fatal consequences for her employment with the firm’. At the meeting, Jay was a bit testy and short-tempered with Gloria but Mitchell, accompanied by Cameron, the firm’s supply chain manager, managed to make sure that Jay didn’t say or do anything ‘outrageous’. The meeting lasted only 10 minutes, with Jay confronting Gloria about