David Malamatenios is a partner, and Krishna Santra, Sandra Martins and Colin Makin are senior associates at Colman Coyle Solicitors. They round up the latest rulings.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that a school's obligation to consult on collective redundancies arose when a provisional decision was made in February 2013 that the school would close unless the pupil intake number improved by April 2013.
An employment tribunal has found that an employee was unfairly dismissed for circulating to colleagues a document about proposed changes to his company's pension scheme, which he found on a shared drive.
An employment tribunal has held that an NHS trust unfairly dismissed an employee who was reported for coming to work smelling of alcohol, without further evidence that he was unfit for work.
In Thomson v Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust EAT/0218/14, the EAT upheld an employment tribunal's ruling that a conduct dismissal was unfair because the chair of the disciplinary panel had no training or experience in the role, and he impermissibly dismissed for what amounted to serious but not gross misconduct. The employee had, however, failed to establish that there was any failure to make reasonable adjustments.
An employment tribunal has held that the dismissal of a long-serving employee who was reported for using his mobile phone while driving in his own car into a workplace car park was unfair.