This case involves an employer that, rather than deal with problems with an employee's behaviour and attitude by giving him a series of warnings, used them as an excuse to dismiss him.
Claire Benson is managing associate and Helen Corbett, Sinead Jones, Helen Ward and Tori O'Neil are associates at Addleshaw Goddard LLP. They round up the latest rulings.
The employer in this case ran into trouble when it dismissed an employee after he refused to work on some days during the company's annual shutdown, because it did not make clear that the outcome of his refusal could be dismissal.
This case demonstrates the importance of employers complying with the terms of contractual staff handbooks and dealing with grievance appeals properly.
The Court of Appeal has held that the employment tribunal was wrong to assess compensation for a banker who was unfairly dismissed and suffered race discrimination on the basis that he would be unlikely to find an equivalent job again.
The employer in this case just about got away with using secretly recorded CCTV footage to dismiss five employees who were caught urinating on company property on numerous occasions, in a two-to-one majority decision in the employment tribunal.