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 […]
Tag: unfair dismissal
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] found that the Code does not apply in ill-health […]
Too much notice?
The recent EAT case of Cockram v Air Products Plc concerns an employee who resigned claiming constructive dismissal following a repudiatory breach of contract by his employer. The employee gave longer notice than he was contractually required to do for financial reasons. He was required to give three months notice but in fact gave seven months […]
Appeals against dismissal
A small employer dismissed an employee for gross misconduct. The employee appealed so the employer engaged an independent panel to hear the employee’s appeal. The panel overturned the employer’s decision to dismiss but the employer did not implement the panel’s decision. Where does that leave the employer in an unfair dismissal claim? The ET found […]
Out of hours conduct
It is always a fine line between conduct which occurs out of work and the ability to discipline or dismiss for it. Some examples are more clear cut than others. It is not limited to conduct in the course of employment provided it affects the employee or could be likely to affect the employee when he […]
Successful appeals
It is well established that a successful appeal against a dismissal overturns the original dismissal, effectively means that the dismissal is extinguished and no unfair dismissal claim can arise out of that dismissal. A similar approach applies in other cases such as sex discrimination. In the recent case of Little v Richmond Pharmacology Ltd, the EAT […]
Unfair dismissal limits
There appears to be some confusion amongst the public over the new unfair dismissal limits. By way of a reminder, the law changed on 29th July to cap the value of unfair dismissal claims at either £74,200 or 52 weeks’ pay, which ever is lowest. The cause for confusion is when the limit applies. The […]
Redundancy criteria and discrimination
In Riežniece v Zemkopības ministrija and another, the Claimant was a legal adviser in a Latvian Government post who took parental leave from November 2007 to May 2009. Before she returned the department was reorganised and a redundancy situation occurred. The employer needed to select one of the four employees for redundancy. It devised criteria […]
Constructive dismissal
There is much confusion amongst the public over the term constructive dismissal. I have heard the term used by employees saying that when there is an actual dismissal they have been constructively dismissed and some businesses are totally surprised that such a concept exists until of course they get their first employment tribunal claim. In […]
Warnings and dismissal
For many years the fact that an employee had a final written warning which was live and then committed a further act of misconduct meant that dismissal was fair if a proper procedure was followed. There were rare circumstances where a Tribunal would look further at the position. I recall many a case when acting […]