In the case of Mr K Pubbi v Your-Move.co.uk Ketan Pubbi was employed as a financial consultant in the respondent’s Estate Agency Division. He was dismissed for failing to disclose that he had been made bankrupt. There was no express term of his contract, nor any policy or regulatory requirement that applied to him, that specifically required him to disclose a bankruptcy. However, the tribunal found that his employer dismissed him because it nevertheless believed that, in all the circumstances, he knew, or should have appreciated, that it would regard his bankruptcy as a serious matter, and would have expected him to disclose it, and that he had deliberately not done so.

The tribunal found that the respondent was entitled to view this conduct as warranting dismissal, and that the overall disciplinary and appeal process was fair. It did not err in finding this to have been a fair dismissal.

While some might say that it is obviously reasonable for a regulated employer to impose a high sanction on an employee behaving in such a manner even in the absence of express contractual provisions, the situation may not have been so clear cut for a non-regulated employer or an employee in a different type of role.

As such this case is a salutary reminder of the sensibility, for any employer, of putting express provisions into contracts and policies to avoid ambiguity and uncertainty about an employee’s conduct obligations. But particularly if the employer wants to impose an equivalent standard of “fitness and propriety” to employees over and above those specifically obliged to meet such a standard.