may be impossible to prove incompetence. The employee may blame lack of training. If the employer supervises the remedial period too closely, the employee may claim constructive dismissal through bullying. If the employer issued a final written warning and then gave a long time for improvement, the employee may argue it is stale. The employer ideally needs complaints from customers and staff. The qualifications ground will be viewed sceptically by tribunals, as if an employee was good enough to employ for two years to give him unfair dismissal rights, a claim that he is suddenly under-qualified may hint at there being another genuine reason, which would make the dismissal unfair on the grounds that the employee never had the chance to respond to the true reason. Unless the law requires the qualification or the employee lied about having it on his CV, this is not a likely ground for success. Ill health can lead to an employee's incapacity in respect of their employment obligations. Illness is not misconduct so disciplinary procedures are not appropriate means to address employer concerns relating to an employee's ill-health. An employer may be able to end an employment relationship without dismissing an employee where the employee's functionality and capacity to undertake their work has been permanently compromised, however tribunals are wary of cases involving employers claiming to have experienced contractual frustration in preference to making reasonable adjustments required by law and addressing the issues within the framework of existing sickness policies in that organisation. In the case of long term ill health, the employer should try to get medical reports and consult the employee and then is entitled to decide how long to wait for recovery and whether it can give an alternative job. If the employee does not give access to medical reports and does not accept alternative work the employer must still give a right of appeal against dismissal, even if it looked inevitable. For intermittent absences the employer should consider alternative work, and whether it cannot reassure itself of a recovery time, factor in the percentage of time absent and the effect on colleagues, warn the employee early on what is required and what will happen if not adhered to and allow representations, and warn the employee when the time has come to stop being absent or lose their job. Because the employer cannot obtain a prognosis for intermittent unrelated absences it