A store manager for this large retailer took the wrong approach to a shift worker who insisted that she was not able to work on Christmas Eve, in a cautionary tale for employers that have strict rules requiring employees to work during the Christmas period.
This employment tribunal found that a police force fairly dismissed a police community support officer (PCSO) over the unexplained disappearance of £15, despite the circumstantial nature of the evidence against her.
In this case, the employer failed to meet its legal obligations to an employee who was a reservist returning from deployment in Afghanistan. The case was complicated by the fact that it was a client's refusal to have the employee back on site that resulted in his dismissal.
The employer in this case fell into the classic trap of burying its head in the sand and failing to consult collectively with employees over the realistic possibility that its business might close and its workforce be made redundant.
In this case, a small employer had to deal with a familiar problem for employers: what to do if employees' behaviour becomes unprofessional because they have fallen out with each other.
The employer in this case took an extremely heavy-handed and, at times, frankly bizarre, approach to allegations that an employee "fraudulently" took one day's sick leave after he claimed that he had been stabbed in the finger by a syringe when sorting post.
The NHS trust in this case unfairly treated two relatively minor criminal convictions as an adequate reason to dismiss a worker, in a case that is a cautionary tale for employers that treat a criminal conviction as an automatic reason for dismissal.