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End of employment

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  • Date:
    15 October 1997
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Health and safety: Safety representative intended to embarrass employer

    Where a safety representative claims that he or she was subjected to a detriment for performing functions as an acknowledged health and safety representative, it is no defence for the employer to argue that the representative intended to embarrass the company in front of the external safety authorities or performed those functions in an unreasonable way unacceptable to the employer, holds the EAT in Shillito v Van Leer (UK) Ltd.

  • Date:
    1 October 1997
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Redundancy: Factual test for determining place of employment approved

    The question of where an employee was employed for the purposes of the statutory definition of redundancy is to be answered primarily by a consideration of the factual circumstances which obtained until the dismissal, holds the Court of Appeal in High Table Ltd v Horst and others.

  • Date:
    1 September 1997
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Jones v F Sirl & Son (Furnishers) Ltd

    In Jones v F Sirl & Son (Furnishers) Ltd [1997] IRLR 493 EAT, the EAT held that in deciding whether an employee left employment in consequence of a fundamental breach of contract by the employer, the industrial tribunal must determine whether the repudiatory breach was "the effective cause" of the resignation. It does not have to be the sole cause.

  • Date:
    1 July 1997
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Wrongful dismissal: Contract claim by employee dismissed before starting work

    In Sarker v South Tees Acute Hospitals NHS Trust the EAT holds that an industrial tribunal had jurisdiction to hear a breach of contract claim brought by an employee whose contract of employment was terminated by the employer before the date on which she was due to start work.

  • Date:
    1 May 1997
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Redundancy: Fair redundancy selection based on absence records

    In deciding the fairness of a redundancy selection criterion based on employees' absence records, an industrial tribunal may consider whether the employer took account of the reasons for a particular employee's absence only as one of the factors to be considered in the circumstances of the case, and not as the conclusive factor, the EAT holds in Byrne v Castrol (UK) Ltd.

  • Date:
    1 May 1997
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Redundancy: Individual consultation not a prerequisite for fair dismissal

    In Mugford v Midland Bank plc, the EAT reviews the current situation regarding redundancy consultation in the context of unfair dismissal, observing that consultation with the trade union over selection criteria does not of itself obviate the need for individual consultation.

  • Date:
    1 May 1997
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Qualifying period to ECJ

    In R v Secretary of State for Employment ex parte Seymour-Smith and Perez (13 March 1997) EOR73A, the House of Lords refers questions to the European Court of Justice relating to whether the increase in the qualifying period for bringing a complaint of unfair dismissal from one to two years indirectly discriminated against women contrary to European Community law.

  • Date:
    15 April 1997
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Redundancy: New three-stage test for redundancy

    In Safeway Stores plc v Burrell, the EAT rejects both the "contract test" and the "function test" for determining whether an employee was dismissed by reason of redundancy.

  • Date:
    15 March 1997
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Unfair dismissal remedies: All termination payments deducted before "Polkey reduction"

    In Digital Equipment Co Ltd v Clements (No.2), the EAT holds that, in calculating the compensatory award for unfair dismissal, any termination payment the employee received from the employer should be deducted from his or her loss caused by the dismissal before reducing that net loss by the percentage chance, if any, that he or she would have been retained had the employer acted fairly.

  • Date:
    15 March 1997
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Redundancy: "Sham" appeal process rendered selection unfair

    An assessment system under which employees were selected for redundancy without individual consultation on the basis of undisclosed marks awarded by their employer gave employees no meaningful opportunity to challenge the decisions made, holds the EAT in John Brown Engineering Ltd v Brown and others.