Employment tribunals and courts
The Court of Appeal in Apelogun-Gabriels v London Borough of Lambeth holds that there is no general principle that it will be just and equitable to extend time for bringing a tribunal claim where the applicant is using the employer's internal grievance procedure.
In Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police v Vento, the EAT upholds an appeal against an employment tribunal's manifestly excessive awards of £165,000 for future loss of earnings, and £65,000 for injury to feelings (which included £15,000 aggravated damages) to a former probationer police officer who suffered unlawful sex discrimination.
In Kuddus v Chief Constable of Leicestershire Constabulary [2001] UKHL 29, the House of Lords allowed an appeal against a strike out of a claim for exemplary damages for the tort of misfeasance. It held that exemplary damages were not restricted to causes of action for which exemplary damages had been awarded prior to 1964. The House of Lords did not expressly decide whether exemplary damages should be available in discrimination cases.
The Court of Appeal gives important guidance on how far tribunals need to go in exploring the circumstances of a claim. Plus cases on protected disclosure, redundancy selection, discrimination by an agent, working time exemptions and constructive dismissal.
An employee who was summarily and wrongfully dismissed 12 days before his 55th birthday, albeit with 12 weeks' pay in lieu of notice, was in principle entitled to claim damages made up of the amount that he would have been paid but for the employer's repudiatory breach of his contract of employment, holds the Court of Appeal in Silvey v Pendragon plc.
In HM Prison Service v Salmon, the EAT upholds an award of £20,000 for injury to feelings, including £5,000 aggravated damages, and a separate, undiscounted award of £15,000 for psychiatric injury, made by an employment tribunal that had partially upheld a former prison officer's complaint of unlawful sex discrimination.
There is no common law contractual remedy for financial or other loss allegedly flowing from the manner or circumstances of an employee's dismissal, holds the House of Lords in Johnson v Unisys Ltd.
In Abbey National plc v Formoso, the EAT rejects an employment tribunal's "reasonable employer" approach to calculating the financial loss flowing from a discriminatory dismissal.
A compromise to settle an employee's claim for compensation for unfair dismissal, reached during the employment tribunal proceedings and recorded by the tribunal in a document headed "Decision of the [employment] tribunal", did not prevent the employee from subsequently bringing proceedings in the county court for unpaid wages, holds the Court of Appeal in Dattani v Trio Supermarkets Ltd.
In principle, employees can recover "stigma" damages in respect of their reasonably foreseeable loss of employment prospects resulting from their employer's breach of the implied term of trust and confidence, holds the House of Lords in Malik and another v Bank of Credit and Commerce International SA (in compulsory liquidation).
Employment law cases: HR and legal information and guidance relating to employment tribunals and courts.