Employees get their full employment law rights after two years in employment (with some exceptions to the rule). Often an employer is mindful of this fact and will look to exit an employee who is not performing at the optimum level or for other reasons. The advice has always been not to take this course […]
Sarah King Employment Solicitor
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News – Unfair dismissal
Reinstatement orders
The Supreme Court has held that an employment tribunal did not fall into an error of law by ordering reinstatement but with the same restriction of duties that applied prior to the Claimant’s dismissal. In McBride v Scottish Police Authority, the Claimant was employed as a fingerprints officer since 1984. In 2000 a group of […]
When does the ACAS Code apply?
The ACAS Code of Practice (COP1) is said to explicitly not apply to redundancy dismissals. Two recent cases have extended the circumstances in which the Code does not apply to include ill-health and some other substantial reason dismissals. The case of Holmes v Qinetiq Ltd [2015] (case reference UKEAT/0206/15/) found that the Code does not […]
Zero hours dismissals
The much talked about and long awaited protection against zero hours dismissals for workers is now in place. This is where employees are dismissed for not being exclusive to one contract. It is now unlawful to dismiss an employee on a zero hours contract if the principal reason is that he breached a contractual clause prohibiting […]
Mitigation of loss
In the recent case of Cooper Contracting Ltd v Lindsey, the EAT has given a useful summary of the principles concerning mitigation of loss. These are the principles that tribunals should apply when considering whether a successful claimant’s compensation should be reduced to reflect failure to mitigate loss in unfair dismissal claims. Mr Justice Langstaff, rejected the […]
Choice of Companion
The High Court has recently held in the case of Stevens v University of Birmingham [2015] that the University’s refusal to allow a representative from a professional defence organisation to accompany the employee at an investigation meeting concerning serious allegations of misconduct was unfair and in breach of the implied trust and confidence. Although the […]
Disclosing your own wrongdoing to the boss
All employees have an implied duty of fidelity applies in their employment contract. However it is well established that employees are not under a general duty to disclose their own misconduct to their employer. The exception would be where the employee is at a senior level such as the director or senior manager where he would be obliged to report […]
Sick pay and constructive dismissal
An Employment Tribunal held that the Claimant was not too ill to resign while on long term sick leave and concluded that she had affirmed the contract following alleged breaches by her employer. The Claimant was a systems support analyst who joined the employer in October 2004. She was off sick with symptoms of stress, anxiety […]
Increase in compensation
New rates have been introduced for statutory redundancy payments, a week’s pay for basic award and for limits on unfair dismissal claims. These will take place for dismissals on or after 6th April 2015. The increases are in line with the RPI measure of inflation which was 2.3%. The new rate for a week’s pay […]
Unpaid director and shareholder was an employee
The Court of Appeal has upheld the Tribunal’s decision that a director and shareholder was an employee and a worker within the meaning of the Employment Rights Act 1996. This was notwithstanding the fact that the director had performed part-time work for the company without pay for over three years. The fact that the parties […]
(Our news section brings you the latest news on published judgments and cases which are all in the public domain. We only comment on these published cases and not cases of our actual clients. Publication of the case or comments is a public service designed to make the courts and tribunals more accessible and ensures justice is seen to be done. This is why court and tribunal judgments are published publicly.)