What counts as gross misconduct?
Most employers would identify intoxication (whether from drink or drugs), fighting or other physical abuse, indecent behaviour, theft, dishonesty, sabotage, serious breaches of health and safety rules and gross insubordination as examples of gross misconduct. You might want to specify other offences, depending on the nature of your business (for example, accepting bribes, offering bribes, downloading pornography, using personal software (with the risk of importing viruses), misusing confidential information or setting up a competing business). Caution should be exercised when dealing with an employee under the influence of alcohol or drugs. If the employee is an alcoholic or drug addict then this should be dealt with as a capability issue and not as gross misconduct in the first instance.
