Where an employer relies on more than one incident cumulatively to justify dismissal, the tribunal must assess whether dismissal was within the range of reasonable responses given the employer's actual reason taken as a whole, ie, all the incidents together. If there is been a procedural flaw in handling one of the incidents, this could make dismissal unfair even if, in theory, one of the other incidents could have justified dismissal. (Robinson v Combat Stress)
Employers considering dismissal for multiple incidents should consider carefully which to rely on, discounting any subject to obvious procedural flaws, and where appropriate may wish to state in the dismissal letter that they believe that the incidents justify dismissal individually as well as cumulatively.
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