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End of employment

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  • Date:
    15 April 2000
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    References: Previously undisclosed complaints in reference gave rise to constructive dismissal

    Providing an employee's prospective employer with a reference that revealed several complaints made about the employee, of which she had been unaware, constituted a breach by her employer of the implied term of trust and confidence in her contract of employment, holds the EAT in TSB Bank plc v Harris.

  • Date:
    1 April 2000
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Misconduct: Range of reasonable responses test is not wrong

    In Midland Bank plc v Madden, the EAT holds that, while no court short of the Court of Appeal can discard the range or band of reasonable responses test as a determinative test, a tribunal is free to substitute its own views for those of the employer as to the reasonableness of dismissal as a response to the reason shown for it.

  • Date:
    1 January 2000
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Transfer of undertakings: Dismissal by reason of transfer precludes finding of "ETO" reason

    The principal reason for the dismissal of a transferor's employees, purportedly on the grounds of redundancy, was the impending transfer of the undertaking, holds the EAT in Kerry Foods Ltd v Creber and others.

  • Date:
    1 December 1999
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Harvest Press Ltd v McCaffrey

    In Harvest Press Ltd v McCaffrey [1999] IRLR 778 EAT, the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that if an employee is dismissed after walking out of work because of bullying or harassment by a colleague, he or she may be protected by the health and safety provisions of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and therefore regarded as automatically unfairly dismissed.

  • Date:
    1 November 1999
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Construction of contract: PHI cover did not cease when employee left service

    A restriction in an insurance policy underwriting a contractual permanent health insurance scheme, which disentitled an employee to benefits on leaving service, was not incorporated by reference or implication into his contract of employment, holds the High Court in Villella v MFI Furniture Centres Ltd.

  • Date:
    15 September 1999
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Breach of contract: Employer was liable to make payment in lieu of notice without deduction for mitigation

    A provision of a contract of employment, which entitled the employer to terminate the contract either by giving the employee notice or summarily on paying him in lieu of notice, did not give the employer a third option of giving no notice and making no, or less than full, payment, holds the EAT in Cerberus Software Ltd v Rowley.

  • Date:
    1 August 1999
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Redundancy: Definition of redundancy entails factual inquiry

    In Murray and another v Foyle Meats Ltd, the House of Lords holds that the language of the statutory definition of redundancy asks two questions of fact. The first is whether or not one or other of various states of economic affairs exists, and the second is whether or not the dismissal is attributable, wholly or mainly, to that state of affairs.

  • Date:
    15 July 1999
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    References: No breach of duty of care in giving reference mentioning unproven misconduct charge

    An employer did not act in breach of its common law duty of care in providing a reference for a former employee which stated that, when he had taken voluntary severance, he was suspended from work because of a charge of gross misconduct, but that disciplinary proceedings had lapsed automatically when his employment terminated, holds the Court of Appeal in Bartholomew v London Borough of Hackney.

  • Date:
    15 February 1999
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Wrongful dismissal: Compensation for loss of chance to claim unfair dismissal

    Damages for wrongful dismissal may in principle include damages in respect of an employee's loss of the opportunity to bring an unfair dismissal complaint, holds the EAT in Raspin v United News Shops Ltd.

  • Date:
    11 February 1999
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Francisco Hernandez Vidal SA v Gomez Perez and others

    In Francisco HernandezVidal SA v Gomez Perez and others [1999] IRLR 132 ECJ, the European Court of Justice held that, for the purposes of EC Business Transfers Directive 77/187, an organised grouping of wage earners who are specifically and permanently assigned to a common task may, in the absence of other factors of production, amount to an economic entity.