Judith Harris of Addleshaw Goddard brings you a comprehensive update on the latest decisions that could affect your organisation, and provides advice on what to do about them.
In X v Y [2004] IRLR 625 CA, the Court of Appeal held that the applicant had been fairly dismissed from his job working with youth offenders after he had been cautioned for gross indecency with another man in a public toilet and failed to disclose the fact that he had committed a criminal offence to his employers.
The overwhelming majority of discrimination law cases are unsuccessful. If the decision is not one of an employment tribunal, it will be a binding precedent.
In Pay v Lancashire Probation Service, the EAT holds that a probation officer with specific responsibility for sex offenders, who was publicly engaged in sadomasochistic activities in his spare time, did not have his rights under the European Convention on Human Rights breached when he was dismissed upon discovery of those activities.
In Wilson and others v the United Kingdom, the European Court of Human Rights holds that, whereas the absence under UK domestic law of compulsory collective bargaining did not, in itself, give rise to a violation of article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, preventing employees from exercising their right to have their trade union protect their interests rendered that right illusory.
Disciplinary proceedings taken by the Securities and Futures Authority against a securities trader involved the "determination of his civil rights and obligations", but not the determination of "any criminal charge" within the meaning of article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, even though the proceedings could result in fines and a suspension, holds the Court of Appeal in R v Securities and Futures Authority Ltd and another ex parte Fleurose.