Dismissal
Georgina Kyriacou and David Malamentenios are partners and Sandra Martins, Colin Makin and Krishna Santra are associates at Colman Coyle Solicitors. They round up the latest rulings.
In Woodcock v Cumbria Primary Care Trust [2012] IRLR 491 CA, the Court of Appeal held that the employer was justified in issuing a redundancy dismissal notice to an employee prior to formal consultation so as to avoid his remaining in its employment until his 50th birthday.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that the tribunal was correct to find that the respondent did not have an economic, technical or organisational (ETO) defence in respect of the two claimants, who were dismissed as a result of harmonisation following a post-TUPE transfer redundancy process.
In this case, the employment tribunal found that a worker, who had refused to work more than 48 hours per week, was automatically unfairly dismissed by his employer.
Sarah Wade, Rosie Kight, Amy Ross-Sercombe, Kate Edminson and Lydia Newman are associates at Addleshaw Goddard LLP. They round up the latest rulings.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that, where the employer put an employee into a redundancy "pool of one" and did not consider the possibility of putting a wider pool of employees at risk of redundancy, the employment tribunal did not properly consider whether or not restricting the pool to one fell within the "range of reasonable responses".
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that an employer was in fundamental breach of contract when it indicated to an employee on long-term sick leave its settled intention to reduce his sick pay by 50%, which was in breach of a collective agreement.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that the employment tribunal was entitled to find that an employee was not constructively dismissed when he resigned after his manager unjustly took disciplinary action against him that was dropped after a swift and fair-minded investigation.
The Court of Appeal has upheld a decision that OFCOM was entitled, in dismissing an employee, to rely on an official disclosure that he presented a risk to children and consider the potential reputational damage if the allegations against him were true.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has affirmed the employment tribunal's decision that an employee, who was dismissed because of the employer's downturn in work and consequent reduction in the hours to be worked, was dismissed by reason of redundancy, even though there was no reduction in the employees required.
Employment law cases: HR and legal information and guidance relating to dismissal.