Sacked for turning up to work “off the scale” on a breathalyser

Friday 02 October 2015

A Health Care Assistant who was sacked for testing “off the scale” on a breathalyser after turning up to work under the influence of alcohol has lost a claim for unfair dismissal against the States.

The applicant – identified as Mrs P de Heiden – had claimed she was wrongfully dismissed and that her dismissal didn’t follow the right procedures.

But the Employment Tribunal dismissed the claims, saying that there was no evidence to support the claims.

Their judgment showed that Mrs de Heiden had worked for the States for 12 years, and at the end of her employment she worked at a home for adults with profound disabilities where her duties included putting residents to bed, and sometimes working with clients on her own.

She had been disciplined in August 2012 for being drunk at work, but when she turned up to work an evening shift on 10 June 2014 colleagues had noticed that she smelled of alcohol.

When a team leader asked her to take a breathalyser test, the nurse conducting the reading found it measured “off the scale” meaning that it was too high to register on the meter, even when she took it a second time.

She was sacked without notice at a disciplinary hearing two months later – an appeal hearing backed that decision to dismiss her on grounds of gross misconduct.

The Tribunal’s finding was: “The Tribunal concludes that the Respondent was entitled to treat the Applicant’s actions of coming into work ‘whilst smelling of alcohol’ as a serious disciplinary matter and that in this case, given the fact that the Applicant had been disciplined for ‘being under the influence of alcohol’ less than two years previously, coupled with the type of work she was entrusted to undertake for the Respondent, it was entirely reasonable for the Respondent to treat the Applicant’s conduct as a fundamental breach of the contract of employment as she had destroyed the Respondent’s ability to maintain its trust and confidence in the manner in which she was expected to perform her work.

“The Tribunal finds that the Respondent was entitled to treat the contract of employment as at an end with immediate effect.”