The Employment Appeal Tribunal has rejected a council's claim that it was required by an enactment to place a cap on the redundancy pay of an older worker who had reached civil service pension age.
Should a hotel have allowed an employee to withdraw a resignation letter that she wrote while agitated during a routine meeting to assess a "mystery-shopper" visit? That was the issue in this employment tribunal.
This constructive dismissal claim against a fashion retailer was unsuccessful, but it does reveal some of the difficulties that can arise when employers in this sector require their staff to project a particular image.
Colin Makin, Krishna Santra, Linda Quinn and Sandra Martins are senior associates and Melissa Powys-Rodrigues is an associate at Colman Coyle Solicitors. They round up the latest rulings.
A tribunal award of nearly £15,000 was the result of this employer's multiple failures when dismissing a Portuguese care worker with a poor grasp of English for the use of a single inappropriate word in the presence of a member of the public.
In DLA Piper's latest case report, Francis v Pertemps Recruitment Partnership Ltd, the claimant successfully argued that he was dismissed when the work that he was carrying out for a specific client, identified specifically in the contract of employment, came to an end.
A large energy supplier has successfully defended an employment tribunal claim that it unfairly dismissed a customer services adviser who commonly hung up on customers and was recorded telling one customer to "bugger off".
An employee's inappropriate behaviour towards a customer can clearly be a fair reason for dismissal, as the unsuccessful claimant in this tribunal case found out.
An employee's inappropriate behaviour towards a customer is not necessarily a fair reason for dismissal when the surrounding circumstances are taken into account, as the employer in this tribunal case found out.
This employment tribunal decision shows that there is nothing to stop a transferee from disciplining a transferred employee who is alleged to have committed misconduct before the transfer.