Would you appeal this?

I was a team leader in charge of thirty others working overnight in a major retailer. I was caught outside a building with a group of others, smoking whilst on a paid break, by my boss.

He elected to suspend me on the spot. No one else was suspended.

I was given a Investigation and Hearing and ultimately fired for Gross Misconduct as I had breached a policy/procedure.

The Policy clearly states that colleagues shall only be permitted to smoke on unpaid breaks. Unfortunatlely my nightshift is a ten hour shift, so we are expected to go ten hours without a cigarette.

Colleagues on the day shift are allowed to flout this rule and have been allowed to go out in paid breaks, with the bosses blessing as this is not percieved to be a 'security' risk, even though it is still in breach of policy.

I am being sacked for flouting the same rules as the boss.

Would you appeal?

Yes, you should appeal, as on your breaks, paid or not, you should be allowed to leave your work station and do what you like within that period. Of course, if smoking is not allowed on the premises then you would need to leave the land concerned before lighting up. I do have to say that you do not have a 'right' to smoke during working hours, but 10 hours is a very long time. (I am a smoker too) Contact your local CAB for specialist help in the employment law area. I have included a link below, for the CAB public website, where you can find your nearest branch. You can contact any branch in the country, if you are having problems getting through. Your time limit to appeal, is three months from the date of the original hearing, so you need to get onto that immediately. There is a very rigid procedure to dismissal and appeals, so it may pay you to read the stuff on the site below carefully today, before proceeding.

See if there is a law requiring unpaid breaks. For example, there may be a requirement that anyone working a ten-hour shift receive an unpaid meal break. If you were entitled to be on an unpaid break at the time of the violation, then you could appeal on that basis. Conversely, if you do receive unpaid breaks, then not letting you smoke during paid breaks does not force you to go ten hours without smoking.

I'm sorry but i don't think you have a leg to stand on.
did your boss let your shift flout the rules, no.
did you know that your boss did not condone you smoking on paid breaks, yes, but you still went ahead and smoked.
if you knew that the day shift was being allowed to smoke you should of raised that with your employers pointing out it was un-fair

Hi!

This is total stupidity!!

YES, OH YES, you should appeal!

And you WILL win!!

It cannot be one rule for one and another for another.

Just try and gather as much evidence you can, and try to include testimonies from other staff if you can.

Hope this helps!

Yes.
You may have broken the rules but if others were doing it at the same time as you and they were caught ,as well, why were they not punished in the same way?
Sounds a bit strange.
If you have told us the whole story you should have a good case.

Yes. I would get as much "evidence" as I could for the day-time flouting of said policy and draw attention to the hypocrisy of it.

Yes I would. Try and get photographic evidence of the day shift flouting the rules.