In Pinto v Gloucestershire NHS Primary Care Trust EAT/0351/09, the EAT held that an employer acted reasonably in dismissing an employee for gross misconduct after she agreed that a final written warning should be set aside, and the allegations that led to it considered in a fresh disciplinary hearing, together with a number of new allegations of misconduct.
A manager's disastrous mishandling of an application for flexible working, from an employee who had returned from maternity leave, meant that she resigned and successfully claimed constructive dismissal.
This case is a useful example for employers of how to carry out a disciplinary investigation and hearing into a violent incident, when the alleged victim or witnesses might feel intimidated.
In R (on the application of Kirk) v Middlesbrough Council and another [2010] IRLR 699 HC, the High Court held that a social worker accused of withholding information about a child protection investigation, of which she was the subject, from her private sector employer was not entitled to legal representation at a disciplinary hearing.
An employment tribunal has found that an individual employed on three consecutive fixed-term contracts over almost a decade is a permanent employee, in a case that has significance for employers in sectors that regularly employ staff for a fixed term, such as teaching, IT and construction.