Unfair dismissal

New and updated

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Facebook entry and YouTube video led to amateur model's dismissal

  Employers can use entries on websites such as Facebook and YouTube as evidence in disciplinary proceedings, as this case demonstrates.

• Date:

  11 August 2010

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Disciplinary proceedings: Employer had discretion to delay disciplinary proceedings pending police investigation

  In Secretary of State for Justice v Mansfield EAT/0539/09, the EAT held that the postponement of disciplinary proceedings pending the outcome of criminal proceedings in respect of the employee's alleged misconduct did not render his eventual dismissal unfair.

• Date:

  11 August 2010

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Unfair dismissal: Employer should have challenged evidence of accuser

  In Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust v Roldan [2010] EWCA Civ 522 CA, the Court of Appeal held that an employment tribunal was entitled to find a dismissal unfair where the reason for the dismissal included an allegation about a secondary incident that had not been particularised, and where there had been a failure to investigate a key dispute of fact between the accuser and accused.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Driver fairly dismissed on suspicion of drinking while delivering volatile acid

  In this case, the employment tribunal found that the employer had fairly dismissed an employee whom it believed had consumed alcohol while working.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Mechanic unfairly dismissed on the spot contrary to Acas code

  The employment tribunal in this case increased the amount of compensation awarded to an unfairly dismissed employee because of his employer's failure to provide a written statement of terms and conditions of employment or to dismiss him in accordance with the Acas code of practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Case round-up

  Ceri Hughes, David Parry, and Carly Mather, associates at Addleshaw Goddard, detail the latest rulings.

• Date:

  22 July 2010

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Costs: pursuing claim purely for declaration of unfair dismissal is unreasonable behaviour

  The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that, in the context of costs applications, it is unreasonable behaviour for a claimant to pursue an unfair dismissal claim purely for the purpose of obtaining a declaration that he or she was unfairly dismissed.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Employee unfairly dismissed after TUPE transfer

  This case is a good example of a key issue in TUPE claims: whether or not an employee was assigned to the transferred undertaking.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Employee unfairly dismissed for smoking at work

  An employer's previous tolerance of misconduct can render a dismissal for that same misconduct unfair, as the employer in this case found to its cost.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Failure to give employee correct duties was a fundamental breach of contract

  A failure by an employer to give an employee correct duties can constitute a fundamental breach of contract, as this case demonstrates.