Unfair Dismissal: An expired disciplinary warning cannot be taken into account when deciding whether to dismiss, the Scottish Court of Session has ruled in Diosynth v Thomson, a case involving an employee’s dismissal following a chemical explosion in which someone died. The fatal accident occurred five months after Mr Thomson’s written warning following an earlier incident had expired. He was dismissed on the basis that he was deemed incapable of following safety instructions even when brough ...
|
Working asleep. A hotel manager was entitled to be paid for work even when asleep, the Employment Appeal Tribunal has ruled in Anderson v Jarvis Hotels, finding that the time when he was required to be present at the hotel, although not actually doing anything, counted as working time. Mr Anderson had claimed for unpaid wages in respect of a nine-month period when he was expected to sleep at the hotel overnight in case of an emergency. The hotel claimed this 'on call' time should not be r ...
|
Disparate treatment. The Employment Appeal Tribunal has in Enterprise Liverpool plc v Bauress reversed a tribunal’s decision that the dismissal of two joiners caught moonlighting was unfair. After hearing that another employee had previously not been dismissed for the same offence, the tribunal declared the joiners’ dismissals unfair, reducing their compensation by 75% for their contributory conduct. However, the Employment Appeal Tribunal found two differences in circumstances: the earlier em ...
|
Age Discrimination: Someone who does all their work outside the United Kingdom can in some circumstances have an employment relationship allowing an unfair dismissal claim to be made through the UK courts, the House of Lords has ruled in Serco v Lawson. Serco – a UK company – employed Mr Lawson to work as a security operator at the RAF base on Ascension Island (which has no indigenous population). Although all the services were performed overseas, the House of Lords found that the close UK co ...
|
Sleepy tribunals. The principle that a tribunal decision can be set aside if an employment tribunal member appears to be asleep has been revisited in Fordyce v Hammersmith and Fulham Conservative Association where it happened not once, but twice. The Employment Appeal Tribunal heard that the first time a wing member apparently dozed off, the claimant agreed to continue. However, when it happened again, Counsel did not complain but instead appealed the decision. The decision was set aside and a ...
|
Sex Discrimination – Direct
The Claimant was employed by the Respondent, who was a solicitor in a small practice. A close and intimate relationship developed between them. He dismissed the Claimant when he saw her with another man on account of jealousy and the discovery that she had another relationship. The dismissal was unfair. The Tribunal also found that the Respondent had discriminated against the Claimant on grounds of sex in dismissing her in respect that dismissal would not have occurred but for the fact that the ...
|
Statutory grievance letters. The claimant in Shergold v Fieldway Medical Centre wrote to her employer setting out her reasons for resignation, but she did not ask for the document to be treated as a formal grievance. The employment tribunal held that it did not amount to a formal grievance letter, but the Employment Appeal Tribunal disagreed, stating that: - there is no formality required in a statutory grievance letter - all the employee must do is set out the complaint in writing; - the ...
|
Appeal Against Refusal to Extend Employment:
Appeal to Court of Session under section 37(1) of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996. Racial discrimination contrary to Race Relations Act 1976. The only complaint which is now in issue is whether the respondent had discriminated against the appellant within the meaning of section 1(1)(a) of the Act ("direct discrimination"). The employment tribunal by a but the put more precisely it is whether the employment tribunal having found that the respondent had treated the appellant less favourably than ...
|
Employment Discrimination
Appellant was unsuccessful in application for post with respondents and presented an application to the employment tribunal claiming that in a number of ways he had in respect of his application for the post of Unit Manager been unlawfully discriminated against by the respondent contrary to section 4(2)(b) of the Race Relations Act 1976. The employment tribunal sustained the claim and made a calculation of compensation payable to the appellant. The respondent appealed to the Employment Appeal Tr ...
|
The EAT repeated that it does not matter whether or not the employee intended to raise a grievance within the body of the letter, adding that the employee does not need to comply with a contractual grievance procedure for the letter to amount to a valid statutory grievance.
|
| 1 2 |