The Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) has concluded that employees cannot claim a right to silence in internal disciplinary hearings.

EAT concluded in the recent case, Ali v Sovereign Buses, that the right to silence does not extend to private company internal disciplinary hearings, enabling employers to conduct their investigations and dismiss an employee who refuses to co-operate.

Stuart Chamberlain, employment law expert at employment law and HR advisory services firm Consult GEE, says: “If an employee facing an internal disciplinary hearing does not say anything or chooses not to even turn up, an employer is now able to carry on the procedure without him or her and dismiss fairly.”

The right to silence, encapsulated in Article 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights, has long been a feature of criminal trial hearings and is intended to dissuade the judge or jury from drawing conclusions from a defendant’s decision not to answer questions during a trial, the principle being that the burden of proving guilt is with the prosecution.