Employment tribunals and courts

New and updated

• Type:

  FAQs

  Can an employee bring a breach of contract claim in an employment tribunal?

• Date:

  4 April 2003

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Sex discrimination: Guidance on awards for injury to feelings in discrimination cases

  In Vento v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police (No.2), the Court of Appeal holds that an employment tribunal was entitled to award £165,000 for future loss of earnings to a probationer police constable who suffered sex discrimination, culminating in her dismissal at the age of 30, two years after her appointment.

• Date:

  21 February 2003

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Breach of contract: Stigma must be real or substantial cause of failure to obtain employment

  In Bank of Credit and Commerce International SA (in liquidation) v Ali and others (No.3), the Court of Appeal holds that, where a claimant alleges that stigma resulting from his or her previous employment affected his or her employment prospects, it was for him or her to prove that the stigma had a real or substantial effect on his or her obtaining employment.

• Date:

  9 December 2002

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Mitigation of loss: Refusing re-employment offer was a failure to mitigate loss

  In Wilding v British Telecommunications plc, the Court of Appeal upholds a decision by an employment tribunal that, by refusing an offer of part-time re-employment, an employee who had been unfairly dismissed and discriminated against on the ground of his disability had thereby failed to mitigate his loss.

• Date:

  9 December 2002

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Aggravated damages: Aggravated damages award based on employer's conduct of defence

  In Zaiwalla & Co and another v Walia the EAT holds that an employment tribunal which upheld an employee's complaint of sex discrimination was entitled to award aggravated damages of £7,500 to reflect the fact that the employer conducted its defence of the tribunal proceedings in a manner deliberately designed to be intimidatory and threatening, and to cause the maximum distress to the employee.

• Date:

  15 May 2002

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Procedure: No extension of time while grievance procedure is being used

  The Court of Appeal in Apelogun-Gabriels v London Borough of Lambeth holds that there is no general principle that it will be just and equitable to extend time for bringing a tribunal claim where the applicant is using the employer's internal grievance procedure.

• Type:

  FAQs

  Does an employer have to surrender confidential documents to an employment tribunal if so directed?

• Date:

  15 March 2002

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Sex discrimination: Excessive awards for injury to feelings and future loss overturned

  In Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police v Vento, the EAT upholds an appeal against an employment tribunal's manifestly excessive awards of £165,000 for future loss of earnings, and £65,000 for injury to feelings (which included £15,000 aggravated damages) to a former probationer police officer who suffered unlawful sex discrimination.

• Date:

  31 December 2001

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Kuddus v Chief Constable of Leicestershire Constabulary

  In Kuddus v Chief Constable of Leicestershire Constabulary [2001] UKHL 29, the House of Lords allowed an appeal against a strike out of a claim for exemplary damages for the tort of misfeasance. It held that exemplary damages were not restricted to causes of action for which exemplary damages had been awarded prior to 1964. The House of Lords did not expressly decide whether exemplary damages should be available in discrimination cases.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Tribunal may leave some stones unturned

  The Court of Appeal gives important guidance on how far tribunals need to go in exploring the circumstances of a claim. Plus cases on protected disclosure, redundancy selection, discrimination by an agent, working time exemptions and constructive dismissal.