Unfair Dismissal

Where a contract of employment provided for a disciplinary process and a right of appeal against dismissal, it was implicit that a successful appeal would, without more, revive the employment relationship and extinguish the dismissal.

Where an employee was dismissed because the employer had a reasonable belief that they were not entitled to work in the UK, the employer should offer an appeal to allow the employee the chance to prove that at all relevant times they in fact had the right to work in the UK.

The summary dismissal of an employee for a series of misconduct issues was fair (although possibly wrongful), even though no single act amounted to gross misconduct and he had an unblemished disciplinary record.

The ‘last straw’ doctrine in constructive dismissal cases allows a claimant to rely on the totality of an employer’s acts, even though earlier breaches by the employer may have been affirmed, so long as the final act forms part of a series.

A school was entitled to summarily dismiss a head teacher for her failure to disclose a personal relationship with a sex offender outside of work.

Simply complying with the non-discrimination regime of the Fixed-term Employees Regulations doesn’t make a dismissal at the end of a fixed term contract fair.

A clear communication that a contract has ended determines the effective date of termination - it’s not something that the parties can simply agree.

A tribunal can hear evidence about protected conversations if the actual date of termination is disputed.

An employer cannot pick and choose when the ‘without prejudice’ rule applies to selectively use information gained during a protected conversation to its advantage in subsequent tribunal proceedings.

An employer could not claim ‘illegality’ as a fair reason to dismiss an employee when the employee failed to provide right-to work documentation.

Including incidents in an investigatory report - which didn’t result in any disciplinary action – didn’t make the subsequent dismissal unfair.

Contrary to long-established practice, employer pension contributions do count towards the calculation of a ‘week’s pay’ says the EAT.

The dismissal of a long-serving employee following derogatory comments about her employer on Facebook was fair.

Elmore v The Governors of Darland High School

Neither a failure to explain why an employee’s appeal had been rejected nor a failure to call witness evidence of the appeal at the tribunal hearing made an employee’s dismissal unfair.