End of employment
In Kidd v Axa Equity & Law Life Assurance Society plc and another [2000] IRLR 301 HC, the High Court held that the duty of care in respect of the provision of references extends to taking reasonable care not to give misleading information.
Providing an employee's prospective employer with a reference that revealed several complaints made about the employee, of which she had been unaware, constituted a breach by her employer of the implied term of trust and confidence in her contract of employment, holds the EAT in TSB Bank plc v Harris.
In Midland Bank plc v Madden, the EAT holds that, while no court short of the Court of Appeal can discard the range or band of reasonable responses test as a determinative test, a tribunal is free to substitute its own views for those of the employer as to the reasonableness of dismissal as a response to the reason shown for it.
The principal reason for the dismissal of a transferor's employees, purportedly on the grounds of redundancy, was the impending transfer of the undertaking, holds the EAT in Kerry Foods Ltd v Creber and others.
In Harvest Press Ltd v McCaffrey [1999] IRLR 778 EAT, the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that if an employee is dismissed after walking out of work because of bullying or harassment by a colleague, he or she may be protected by the health and safety provisions of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and therefore regarded as automatically unfairly dismissed.
A restriction in an insurance policy underwriting a contractual permanent health insurance scheme, which disentitled an employee to benefits on leaving service, was not incorporated by reference or implication into his contract of employment, holds the High Court in Villella v MFI Furniture Centres Ltd.
A provision of a contract of employment, which entitled the employer to terminate the contract either by giving the employee notice or summarily on paying him in lieu of notice, did not give the employer a third option of giving no notice and making no, or less than full, payment, holds the EAT in Cerberus Software Ltd v Rowley.
In Murray and another v Foyle Meats Ltd, the House of Lords holds that the language of the statutory definition of redundancy asks two questions of fact. The first is whether or not one or other of various states of economic affairs exists, and the second is whether or not the dismissal is attributable, wholly or mainly, to that state of affairs.
An employer did not act in breach of its common law duty of care in providing a reference for a former employee which stated that, when he had taken voluntary severance, he was suspended from work because of a charge of gross misconduct, but that disciplinary proceedings had lapsed automatically when his employment terminated, holds the Court of Appeal in Bartholomew v London Borough of Hackney.
Damages for wrongful dismissal may in principle include damages in respect of an employee's loss of the opportunity to bring an unfair dismissal complaint, holds the EAT in Raspin v United News Shops Ltd.
Employment law cases: HR and legal information and guidance relating to the end of employment.