Unfair dismissal
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that, on its true construction, a company's long-term disability scheme applied to employees who were permanently incapable of employment in any capacity, rather than merely incapable of working for the company.
Employees with less than one year's service can still claim unfair dismissal in certain circumstances, as the employer in this case found to its cost.
Forcing an employee to resign can easily result in a successful tribunal claim, as this case shows.
In this case, an employment tribunal held that a manager's dismissal for a one-off mistake that could have had fatal consequences was fair.
In Hussain v Acorn Independent College Ltd EAT/0199/10, the EAT held that a teacher had the requisite one-year period of continuous employment to bring a complaint of unfair dismissal. Continuity was preserved over the college summer vacation between his first temporary contract and a subsequent contract because his absence was on account of a "temporary cessation of work".
Employees' entries on social media critical that are of their employer will not always justify dismissal, as this case demonstrates.
This case demonstrates the difficulties faced by employers in introducing workplace drug and alcohol testing.
The Court of Appeal has held that, when considering dismissal of an employee for misconduct, an employer is not taken to have known mitigating facts that are known to the employee's manager but are withheld from the dismissing officer.
The Court of Appeal has reinstated an employment tribunal decision that a nurse with a clean record was unfairly dismissed when she made a single lewd remark while restraining a patient having an epileptic fit.
HR and legal information and guidance relating to unfair dismissal.