Court of Appeal Determines the Nature of Disciplinary Investigations – September 2016
We regularly get questions about the admissibility, in the Employment Relations Authority and/or Employment Court, about recordings taken secretly, i.e. without one party’s consent to do so.
The Employment Relations Authority in Firman v Insyn Limited recently determined that while recordings made secretly are not actions in good faith, nevertheless such recordings are generally admissible, but only in so far as the substance of the recording is relevant to the matter in dispute. This follows a Court of Appeal Judgment some time ago confirming that it is not unlawful for a participant to record a conversation without the knowledge of the other party.
The message to be learnt from these types of judgments is that recordings should be an accepted part of meetings if one party, or even both parties, wish to record the meeting. Participants should take into account that what is said at meetings, such as disciplinary meetings, could be listened to during subsequent considerations.
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