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In HR-2025-1687-A, the Supreme Court has ruled that employers are not obliged to consider redeployment when the conditions for dismissal are met. The decision provides long-awaited clarification for employers and HR personnel in dealing with serious breaches of trust.
Facts of the case
A nurse in a municipality in Finnmark was dismissed after hitting a mentally disabled user with a flat hand. The dismissal was contested, and the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of the employee, partly because the municipality had not considered redeployment. The case was appealed, and the Supreme Court overturned the Court of Appeal's judgement. The central question was whether the employer, in a pure dismissal situation based on the employee's circumstances, must investigate and consider alternative measures such as redeployment.
The Supreme Court's judgements and results
The Supreme Court emphasises that dismissal applies to the most serious breaches of duty in the employment relationship, typically where the relationship of trust between employer and employee has been broken. When the basis for dismissal is a serious breach of duty that has destroyed trust, there is no requirement for the employer to also consider redeployment. This follows from the nature of the dismissal: The employment relationship can be terminated immediately because there is no longer a justifiable basis for continued service, regardless of whether the employee could have had other duties.
At the same time, the judgement draws a clear distinction between dismissal based on the employee's circumstances, where redeployment and other more lenient measures are often included in the assessment of objectivity. In the case of dismissal, the assessment is whether there has been a sufficiently serious breach of duty and breach of trust to terminate the employment relationship immediately. In this specific case, the Supreme Court found that the Court of Appeal had based its judgement on an incorrect understanding of the law by requiring a redeployment assessment, and the judgement was therefore overturned.
Clarifications from the judgement
The judgement clarifies that the obligation to consider redeployment does not apply in dismissal cases where the basis is a serious breach of duty that has violated trust. For employers and HR, this means that the focus of the dismissal assessment must be on the seriousness of the incident, the consequences for proper operations and the relationship of trust, not on possible alternative placements.
At the same time, the decision emphasises important procedural requirements: The employer must continue to ensure proper investigation of the facts, contradiction and a comprehensive assessment of whether the conditions for dismissal are actually met. Documentation, risk assessments and consistent practice are key, especially in services with vulnerable users. The judgement thus provides increased predictability, but assumes that the employer carefully assesses and justifies that the threshold for dismissal has been passed before making a decision.
