If any public sector employees are convicted of Riot Crimes....

Any public sector employee convicted of an offence arising out of the recent public disturbances should be considered for dismissal or some other disciplinary sanction (a fair procedure of investigation and disciplinary process must be followed - see the ACAS Code). Our teachers and youth workers are in loco parentis, medical professionals have duties to save our lives and civil servants have duties to uphold and enforce the law.  Any of these convicted of offences of dishonesty or public order cannot be trusted in these important public positions of trust.  Any convicted should face the prospect of potential penalties at work. Dismissal for misconduct can include dismissal for offences committed away from work: in Singh v London Country Bus Services Ltd [1976] IRLR 176 the EAT held that ‘conduct’ in this context: “does not have to be something which occurs in the course of the actual work, or at the actual place of work, or even be connected with the work, so long as in some respect or other it affects the employee, or could be thought to be likely to affect the employee, when he is doing his work”. Or the dismissal could be for for some other substantial reason - in the case of Harper v NCB [1980] IRLR 260 the EAT that confirmed that a reason is substantial if “the employer can show that he had a fair reason in his mind at the time when he decided on dismissal and that he genuinely believed this to be fair” so long as the reason is not “whimsical or capricious…which no person of ordinary sense would entertain…” (para 8).