The Employment Appeal Tribunal has upheld the employment tribunal decision that a former NHS trust chief executive was automatically unfairly dismissed for making a protected disclosure.
The employer in this case had a laudable zero-tolerance policy on racism, but failed to take a common-sense view of the background to an accusation that a manager had made a racist comment.
The employer in this case fairly dismissed an employee who lost his driving licence, even though there was not an express requirement in his contract of employment that he be able to drive.
This is a rare instance, along with the decision in Barlow v Ranc Care Homes Ltd ET/1101527/10, of an employment tribunal ordering an employer to reinstate an unfairly dismissed employee.
Employment tribunals do not have to delve too deeply into the reasons why an earlier warning was issued when an employee is later dismissed for further misconduct or poor performance while that warning is still live, as we can see from this judgment. They need to look behind the original warning only in exceptional circumstances, for example where there is evidence that it was issued in bad faith.
The Supreme Court has held that teachers employed by the Government to work in European Schools, which it described as "international enclaves", are entitled to bring unfair dismissal claims in the UK.
In this case, the tribunal held that a police force was entitled to dismiss a long-serving employee who admitted that she had committed a single act of dishonesty outside work.