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Can we dismiss an employee for a one-off act of incompetence?

Can we dismiss an employee for a one-off act of incompetence?

If the incompetence was wilful then it should be dealt with as misconduct, and if this is gross misconduct then the individual can potentially be safely dismissed for this one-off act.  However, assuming that it was not intentional, then it will be difficult to dismiss for a single act.  This is because the purpose of a performance improvement policy is to support the employee to improve.  Only if their performance does not improve can dismissal be justified.  Despite this, in very rare cases dismissal can be justified if the incompetence had particularly serious or hazardous consequences.