Dismissal
This week's case of the week, provided by Covington & Burling, covers TUPE transfers.
In Prakash v Wolverhampton City Council EAT/0140/06, the Employment Appeal Tribunal holds that where a fixed-term contractor's dismissal for misconduct was overturned by an appeal decided after the expiry date of the contract, the effect of the successful appeal was to reinstate the terms of the original contract. It could not extend the life of the contract beyond its expiry date.
In Burlo v Langley and another [2006] EWCA Civ 1778 the Court of Appeal holds that an employee's compensation for lack of notice was restricted to her actual loss where she would have been in receipt of statutory sick pay during the notice period.
In Metrobus Ltd v Cook EAT/0490/06, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has held that an employment tribunal did not err in increasing the amount of unfair dismissal compensation by 40% where an employer had failed to follow the statutory disciplinary and dismissal procedure.
This article looks at some of the important judgments in the area of the transfer of undertakings over the past year.
In Chairman and Governors of Amwell View School v Dogherty EAT/0243/06, the Employment Appeal Tribunal holds that an employment tribunal was not entitled to admit as evidence in unfair dismissal proceedings recordings of a disciplinary panel's private deliberations.
In London Metropolitan University v Sackur and others EAT/0286/06, the Employment Appeal Tribunal has confirmed that standardisation of employees' terms is not of itself sufficient to give rise to an ETO defence.
In Taylor v OCS Group Ltd [2006] IRLR 613 CA, the Court of Appeal holds that defects in the conduct of a disciplinary hearing are capable of being "cured" in an internal appeal even if it does not amount to a full rehearing of the issue. In addition, a deaf employee not given the opportunity to have an interpreter at his disciplinary hearing was not treated less favourably for a reason related to his disability.
In Scope v Thornett [2007] IRLR 155 CA, the Court of Appeal has stressed that employment tribunals are permitted to make reductions in the amount of compensation awarded for future loss of earnings where this involves speculation.
In Bolton School v Evans [2007] IRLR 140 CA, the Court of Appeal has held that protection against a detriment for making a protected disclosure does not extend to dismissal for conduct that is designed to demonstrate that the belief in the wrongdoing is reasonable.
Employment law cases: HR and legal information and guidance relating to dismissal.