Here’s the situation: You own a small business that employs 15 employees. You do your best to provide good pay and benefits, but, like many companies, your business has been adversely impacted by lingering effects of the pandemic and the overall sluggishness of the economy. You call an all-hands meeting and reluctantly inform your employees … Continue Reading
Back in March we posted here a piece about dismissing to protect the employer’s corporate reputation. In that case the employer made a very difficult choice between the claimed (ultimately, actual) innocence of the employee and the harm which continuing to employ him might do if he turned out to be guilty. On the facts, … Continue Reading
Hot on the heels of a petition for new legislation aimed at preventing sexual harassment in the workplace, the Government has launched its consultation on the matter. The group behind the petition, called “This is Not Working”, is made up of unions, charities and women’s rights groups.… Continue Reading
We have cautioned earlier in this series about allowing your PSC contractors to become integrated into your business so far as their outward projection to clients is concerned – describing them as part of “our team”, giving them business cards, company phones or invitations to the client party, and so on. Integration is something you … Continue Reading
As we know, where an employee is engaged under one or a series of fixed-term contracts for a period of over 2 years, they acquire the right not to be unfairly dismissed. It is also the case that non-renewal of a fixed-term contract will count as a dismissal under the ERA 1996. An employee whose … Continue Reading
A useful little reminder from the Employment Appeal Tribunal last week that underneath all the practices and codes and assumptions which govern our conduct of HR matters, there is still The Law.… Continue Reading
Let’s get our terms straight to start with. Redundancy selection is where you have more than one person (say, A and B) carrying out a role for which the employer’s need has diminished, and then choosing which of them to let go. Bumping is where you have chosen the employee who is notionally redundant but … Continue Reading
As I wrote in this space last year, layoffs for economic circumstances exist under Japanese law, but are exceedingly difficult to achieve without constituting wrongful dismissal. One major international airline is learning this the hard way. Three years ago, the airline terminated three Japan-based employees in connection with the closing of its call center in … Continue Reading
Ever think that you don’t really know your staff? Here is a case about how far that feeling can justify dismissal. Elizabeth Ssekisonge gained indefinite leave to remain in the UK in 2000, qualified as a nurse in 2007 and started work with the Barts Health NHS Trust in 2011. In early 2007 she received … Continue Reading
An employee of West Australian Newspapers Limited (WAN) who moonlighted for Uber was caught in the act when, one Saturday night, he picked up a WAN manager. Despite being well and truly busted, the employee (who worked night shifts as WAN’s newspaper machinist) denied having any affiliation with Uber, saying that his wife had the … Continue Reading
In May 2015 the Employment Rights Act was amended to include at Section 27A a provision which made unenforceable any requirement in a zero hours (ZH) contract that the worker could not work elsewhere or could do so only with the employer’s consent. But so what, really? Since many ZH staff are not employees, and … Continue Reading
So you’ve lost the unfair dismissal or discrimination claim against you and are now staring down the barrel of the Employment Tribunal’s jurisdiction to award compensation for the employee’s losses. Never mind, you think – he could easily and immediately have got another job at a pay rate sufficient to extinguish his losses, so the … Continue Reading
And so off to Wrexham for the sort of day trip to the Employment Tribunal which every A-Level Law teacher just dreads. Just remember, boys and girls, don’t try this at home. MBNA Limited held a 20th anniversary event at Chester Racecourse in November 2013. Staff were told that it was a work event and … Continue Reading
In Newbound –v- Thames Water the Court of Appeal has recently upheld the ruling of the Employment Tribunal that Mr Newbound had been unfairly dismissed for gross misconduct despite his breaching company health and safety rules. The case highlights the difficulties faced by employers trying to enforce compliance with new health and safety procedures, but … Continue Reading
Time for a quick look at the Guidance issued by the Department of Work & Pensions on the new Fit for Work (FfW) Scheme https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fit-for-work-guidance. There are two ways of looking at this. First, that the Guidance is a gallant attempt to explain in simple terms how this Scheme may (I use the word advisedly) … Continue Reading
In a sequel to our blog last year concerning Australian employers using expletives towards employees (click here), the Fair Work Commission was recently faced with the converse scenario, this time being asked to rule on whether an employer was entitled to summarily dismiss an employee who had inadvertently sent him a text message in which … Continue Reading
Some reassuring guidance for employers on the conduct of disciplinary investigations from the Court of Appeal last week – not new law but a clear and helpful analysis of just how far you have to go to investigate an employee’s defence. Mr Shrestha was employed by Genesis Housing Association as a support worker, a role … Continue Reading
In November in Poland the story of a dismissed Religious Studies teacher hit the news. What made this story of interest? The Polish State requires schools to run Religious Studies (RS) classes. The teaching syllabus and text books are decided by the Church authorities and RS teachers must be issued a license (missio canonica) by … Continue Reading
The latest Employment nightmare doing the rounds on Twitter courtesy of the Huffington Post is what can only be described as a gob-smackingly insensitive letter from one Dr V., an “oral surgeon” from Pennsylvania. On being informed by one of his employees of 12 years’ loyal service that she had been diagnosed with cancer of … Continue Reading
Around the world unpleasant email exchanges often result in Employment Tribunal proceedings; however the sheer degree of personal malice evidence in a recent French case has shocked even seasoned commentators. The email in question contained amongst other colourful phrases the following salutation: “Hello, fat cow… I am waiting for your resignation letter because after my … Continue Reading
Last week the well-publicised and drawn out litigation between Sharon Shoesmith and London’s Haringey Council was resolved by settlement. For those unaware of the case, Shoesmith was the Director of Children’s Services at Haringey at the time that a 17 month old toddler, Peter Connelly (known at the time as Baby P) was beaten to … Continue Reading
Back in January we ran a post concerning the dismissal of an Iowa dentist’s assistant because of the threat which his wife considered she posed to the stability of their marriage. We floated there the question of whether a dismissal on those grounds – anticipated repudiatory breach of contract, if you like – could be … Continue Reading
There are some interesting nuggets lurking within the Ministry of Justice statistics for the Employment Tribunal Service for the year to 31 March 2011, released this week. The figures record an overall number of claims in excess of 218,000 across the UK. The good news is that this is 8% down on 2009/10, but the … Continue Reading
