We recently had an employee whom we caught abusing our internet policy. We allowed him to resign rather than go through the disciplinary process, which we thought would inevitably lead to dismissal, given the seriousness of the wrong-doing and the strength of evidence. However, a HR colleague from another location said we have left our employer open to an unfair dismissal challenge. Could you please advise?

It is not uncommon for employees to resign in the face of potential dismissal and employers often prefer this option in order to avoid the time and expense of a dismissal leading to a dispute or litigation, which can of course happen regardless of whether the dismissal was fair.

However, employers should be careful when adopting this approach as they can often accept such resignations and then find themselves facing unfair dismissal proceedings where the employee alleges that he/she was left with no option but to resign (a forced resignation).

Tribunals are then asked to consider whether an employee has resigned or whether, in the circumstances, they have in fact been dismissed. If