Breach of contract: Disciplinary suspension was in breach of implied term of trust and confidence

The suspension of a care worker in a children's home by her local authority employer, pending the outcome of an investigation into an allegation of child sexual abuse, amounted to a breach of the implied term of trust and confidence in her contract of employment, holds the Court of Appeal in Gogay v Hertfordshire County Council [2000] IRLR 703. To be told by one's employer that one has been accused of sexual abuse is clearly calculated seriously to damage the relationship of confidence and trust between employer and employee, and there was no reasonable and proper cause to do that in this case.