> The ruling holds that business process is not only legally binding, but trump's the terms for dismissal in the employment contract.

No, it doesn't. The business process was part of the legally binding contract.

> The hearing was told that under the terms of her contract, she could be fired for “the provocative use of insulting or abusive language”. However, this required she be given a prior warning. Only more serious breaches such as “threatening and intimidating language” would be gross misconduct and warrant summary dismissal.

My reading of the article was that the former was stated in the contract, and the latter was the judicial finding. In retrospect,I suppose this is unclear from the article.

That's not my reading of it, but to remove all doubt, the judicial finding details the employment contract.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/64ae81ed8bc29...

> Section 15 and 16 of the contract deal with disciplinary rules and unsatisfactory work and misconduct. Sections 18, 19 and 20 specify the respondent’s disciplinary procedures. Section 21 details the appeals procedure. The grievance procedure and grievance appeal procedure are laid out at section 22.

> At section 16 there is a list of the type of conduct or unsatisfactory work that may lead to dismissal after a prior warning has been given. There is a non exhaustive list of examples which include negligence, carelessness or general lack of capability in performance of the employees duties, bad timekeeping and the provocative use of insulting or abusive language.

Because employees in the UK generally have contracts of employment that both parties have to follow?

Because process is what ensures that people subject to the same contract terms all receive equal and fair treatment.

You fire one person for calling their boss a dickhead, you’d better be sure you never allowed someone on the same contract to call their boss a dickhead without being fired.

That's not true. Firing is an option, not an obligation.

Forgiving a fireable offense in one case doesn't mean every case must be forgiven.