Unfair dismissal
This week's case of the week, provided by DLA Piper, covers sex and pregnancy discrimination and constructive dismissal.
One manager's involvement throughout a disciplinary process can render an otherwise fair dismissal unfair, as the employer in this case discovered.
This case serves as a warning to employers always to calculate redundancy selection scores carefully, as mistakes can render a dismissal unfair even if they are identified only after the employee's appeal.
A dismissal where the reason (or the principal reason) is an employee's jury service will be automatically unfair, regardless of the employee's length of service, as this case demonstrates.
An employee's workplace prank can undermine the employer's trust and confidence in him or her, and warrant summary dismissal, as this case demonstrates.
An employee's lies to a third party can be grounds for dismissal for breach of trust and confidence, as this case demonstrates.
In Pinto v Gloucestershire NHS Primary Care Trust EAT/0351/09, the EAT held that an employer acted reasonably in dismissing an employee for gross misconduct after she agreed that a final written warning should be set aside, and the allegations that led to it considered in a fresh disciplinary hearing, together with a number of new allegations of misconduct.
The employer in this case was determined to get rid of an employee who was off sick for 11 months after an accident at work for which it admitted liability, leading to a finding of unfair dismissal.
Compensation for a successful whistleblowing claim is unlimited, as the employer in this case found to its cost.
HR and legal information and guidance relating to unfair dismissal.