The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that, where an employer offers an incentive to employees to secure agreement to variation of their contracts, it is reasonable not to offer that benefit as part of an offer of re-engagement following dismissals for failure to agree.
The employer in this case wanted to make a blanket variation to its workforce's contractual notice periods. However, the employer got itself into the difficult position of varying the claimant's notice period, while the rest of the workforce refused the change.
A model statement at the beginning of a staff handbook to cover administrative issues such as how your organisation will communicate changes to the handbook to staff.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that, when considering whether or not a dismissal for refusing to take a pay cut was fair for "some other substantial reason", the employment tribunal should look at the reasonableness of the employer's decision to dismiss, not whether or not the employee was reasonable in refusing the reduction in wages.
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.
This case demonstrates the importance of employers complying with the terms of contractual staff handbooks and dealing with grievance appeals properly.