The commander of a British nuclear submarine who ran his vessel aground on a large rock and was later court martialed as a result provides a good reminder that, in some circumstances, a single catastrophic mistake can be enough to justify dismissal.

The case stems from an incident in May 2008 in which Commander Steve Drysdale crashed the submarine HMS Superb into a large rock in the Red Sea. He admitted, along with two of his officers, to misreading the depth of the rock as 732 metres when in reality it was only 132 metres down. It was this mistake that led to the accident.

The case mirrors the more well-known case of Taylor v Alidair Ltd, in which a pilot was dismissed after making a single bad landing. In this case, the court of appeal found that since the degree of professional skill required by a pilot was so high, and since the consequences of deviating from those high standards could be so serious, one failure to uphold those standards was enough to justify dismissal.

Providing that the correct procedure is followed, the decision to dismiss an employee for a single catastrophic mistake will be justified if:

• The failure of performance of the employee is so extreme that no amount of training or time for improvement could possibly make a difference.
• The consequences for the employer are so serious that it cannot be reasonably expected to continue the employment relationship.

While dismissal should always be a last resort for any employer, under some circumstances it is inevitable and simply cannot be avoided.

Technorati Tags: Dismissal, Single Mistake