Unfair dismissal
Chris McAvoy, Cane Pickersgill, Tessa Harland, Sarah Wade and David Rintoul are associates at Addleshaw Goddard LLP. They round up the latest rulings.
The NHS trust in this case unfairly treated two relatively minor criminal convictions as an adequate reason to dismiss a worker, in a case that is a cautionary tale for employers that treat a criminal conviction as an automatic reason for dismissal.
A civilian police worker unsuccessfully claimed unfair dismissal and disability discrimination after she lost her job for a dangerous driving conviction. This is an example of an employer legitimately dismissing a worker who has been convicted of a criminal offence outside work.
In this well-publicised case, the employer was in the unenviable position of having to decide whether or not an employee who had been charged with, but not yet tried for, murder should be dismissed.
An unfortunate situation arose for this small employer when a recruitment consultant was made redundant after she had informed it, just two weeks into her new job, that she was pregnant. She claimed sex discrimination and unfair dismissal after seeing an advert shortly after her redundancy stating that the company was seeking recruitment consultants.
In this case, the industrial tribunal in Northern Ireland described a small employer's decision to dismiss a young worker to avoid having to increase her pay from £4.00 to the national minimum wage rate of £4.92, when she reached the age of 18, as "callous".
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 was entitled to take a stern view of an isolated incident in which an employee lost her cool and swore at a team leader.
An increasing number of tribunal cases involve employees making work-related comments on Facebook. This case shows that derogatory comments will by no means always justify dismissal.
Claire Benson is managing associate and Caroline Jacobs and Chris McAvoy are associates at Addleshaw Goddard LLP. They round up the latest rulings.
HR and legal information and guidance relating to unfair dismissal.