Employee can be automatically unfairly dismissed over safety concerns even when employer genuinely disagrees

Unfair dismissal: Dismissal for health and safety reason can be automatically unfair where employer does not share employee's belief in danger

Date:

1 February 2012

In Oudahar v Esporta Group Ltd [2011] IRLR 730 EAT, the EAT held that a dismissal could be automatically unfair for a reason related to health and safety even though the employer genuinely did not share the employee's belief that a situation was dangerous, and dismissed him for his repeated failure to undertake a task that he thought was unsafe.