Sep 25, 2026 · 20 min · 8 segments
Today we recorded our ‘Ask the Experts monthly Q&A with Sintons’ Employment Team – episode 85’ – with Keith Land & Catherine Hope.
And the question is, do you have to wait until you've held the appeal and you've made the decision in relation to that before you start recruiting for their replacement, if that's what you need to do? Well, in practice, so it's not the case that you're expected to stop operating just because an employee has raised a dispute in relation to the dismissal.
And it's not that, you know, you have a business to run or an organisation to continue operating.
So there'll be operational needs that won't disappear and work obviously has to continue.
And you may have a role that really just needs to be filled immediately because of the demand.
So it's not that you're prevented from appointing a replacement just because someone has raised an appeal.
But I think there are a number of things you have to think about because it could present difficulties if you did replace that position before an appeal was held.
And I think things you have to think about are if, say, appeal was held, it was successful and the outcome there was reinstatement.
Or if you're in a situation where you filled that role and then you need to withdraw that job offer to the person who's filled that position, If that's not done properly in line with a contract, that could expose you to a breach of contract claim or other issues if just someone is disgruntled.
And again, on the flip side, if an appeal failed and the decision was made to uphold the dismissal, an employee may argue that, well, you've searched for a replacement.
and you filled my role, you demonstrated that you didn't conduct the appeal process with an open mind and that the outcome of that was prejudged.
And I think if you're in a situation where you do need to fill the role, because obviously that might be the case, you need to ensure you're demonstrating the reasons for rejecting an appeal in that process and i would always try and aim to complete that before you do recruit if you can do that before that replacement process begins um and that being said there are situations where you might need to urgently urgently replace that position i think if you've done that you just need to ensure you document why the position had to be filled and why you couldn't wait as an organization you know for example what would the negative impact have been if that position remained vacant And that will be helpful in terms of if a dispute is raised and the employee takes you to employment tribunal, you're ready to evidence why that replacement was necessary.
Should that come under scrutiny and you can clearly and strongly defend any argument that that affected the appeal and any outcome there that was prejudged.
And the question is, do you have to wait until you've held the appeal and you've made the decision in relation to that before you start recruiting for their replacement, if that's what you need to do? Well, in practice, so it's not the case that you're expected to stop operating just because an employee has raised a dispute in relation to the dismissal.
And it's not that, you know, you have a business to run or an organisation to continue operating.
So there'll be operational needs that won't disappear and work obviously has to continue.
And you may have a role that really just needs to be filled immediately because of the demand.
So it's not that you're prevented from appointing a replacement just because someone has raised an appeal.
But I think there are a number of things you have to think about because it could present difficulties if you did replace that position before an appeal was held.
And I think things you have to think about are if, say, appeal was held, it was successful and the outcome there was reinstatement.
Or if you're in a situation where you filled that role and then you need to withdraw that job offer to the person who's filled that position, If that's not done properly in line with a contract, that could expose you to a breach of contract claim or other issues if just someone is disgruntled.
And again, on the flip side, if an appeal failed and the decision was made to uphold the dismissal, an employee may argue that, well, you've searched for a replacement.
and you filled my role, you demonstrated that you didn't conduct the appeal process with an open mind and that the outcome of that was prejudged.
And I think if you're in a situation where you do need to fill the role, because obviously that might be the case, you need to ensure you're demonstrating the reasons for rejecting an appeal in that process and i would always try and aim to complete that before you do recruit if you can do that before that replacement process begins um and that being said there are situations where you might need to urgently urgently replace that position i think if you've done that you just need to ensure you document why the position had to be filled and why you couldn't wait as an organization you know for example what would the negative impact have been if that position remained vacant And that will be helpful in terms of if a dispute is raised and the employee takes you to employment tribunal, you're ready to evidence why that replacement was necessary.
Should that come under scrutiny and you can clearly and strongly defend any argument that that affected the appeal and any outcome there that was prejudged.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
