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.
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.
This employment tribunal punished a large employer's failure to follow the "Acas code of practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures" by awarding a combined total of over £100,000 to two claimants who were unfairly dismissed.
Joe Beeston, Kate Edminson, Rosie Kight and David Rintoul are associate solicitors and Iain Naylor is a trainee solicitor at Addleshaw Goddard LLP. They round up the latest rulings. They round up the latest rulings.
In DLA Piper's case of the week, Lund v St Edmund's School, Canterbury, the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that the Acas code of practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures should have been followed in a case where the reason for dismissal was stated to be for "some other substantial reason" (SOSR), but disciplinary proceedings ought to have been invoked.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has reiterated the importance of employers carrying out a sufficiently thorough disciplinary investigation where there are allegations of criminal behaviour.