Employment Law Cases

A fair redundancy dismissal requires proper consideration of alternative employment.

An employee’s claim against his employer in negligence, based on the way his employer had handled a harassment complaint against him, succeeded as it breached the duty of care owed to him by his employer.

Part-time worker discrimination is limited to instances where the part-time status is the ‘sole’ reason for the alleged discriminatory treatment.

While it was arguable that two HR consultants, appointed to investigate grievances and conduct a disciplinary hearing, were acting as an employer’s agents when undertaking those functions, it was not arguable that the employer’s reliance on their work when deciding to dismiss an employee meant that the consultants were co-liable as agents.

An employee who was contractually required to work variable shift lengths was not entitled to additional pay for working beyond his average weekly hours.

A transferor’s vicarious liability for alleged torts committed by two of its employees prior to a TUPE transfer does pass to the transferee.

The legal definition of a ‘woman’ under the Equality Act 2010 is based on biological sex.

An NHS Trust had taken ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent a black employee from being racially abused.

A tribunal had incorrectly struck out an employee’s claims for detriments for blowing the whistle under the Employment Rights Act and discrimination/detriments claims under the Equality Act. An organisation, other than the employee’s employer, could potentially be liable under specific sections even without a direct contractual relationship with the employee.

Employee who concealed a previous gross misconduct dismissal on an application form was fairly dismissed.

Employers cannot discipline an employee for manifesting a protected belief because someone else may be offended - unless they have also considered whether the action is both necessary and proportionate.

An employer was not required to consider an employee’s length of service or the possibility of alternative sanctions when dismissing for ‘some other substantial reason’ (SOSR) where the relationship between the parties had irretrievably broken down.

An employee who objected to a TUPE transfer involving a detrimental change in his working conditions was dismissed by the transferor.

An employee’s failure to exhaust the employer’s grievance procedure was not relevant when considering whether the employer’s conduct amounted to a breach of the implied term of mutual trust and confidence, entitling the employee to resign and claim unfair constructive dismissal.

Pre-termination discussions were inadmissible in an unfair dismissal claim because they constituted a ‘protected conversation’ and were not tainted with impropriety.

Enhanced maternity protection under reg. 10 of the Maternity and Parental Leave etc. Regulations 1999 does not apply when no actual vacancy exists.

The Court of Appeal holds that employers do not have to conduct general workforce consultation for an individual redundancy dismissal to be fair. It overturns the EAT decision which suggested that consulting employees individually is not sufficient, even if collective consultation obligations do not apply.

A belief in English nationalism, including anti-Islamic views, is not a protected belief under the Equality Act.

An employer was not entitled to dismiss and offer to re-engage certain of its employees on new terms (fire and rehire) to remove pay protection it had referred to as ‘permanent’. An earlier injunction preventing it from doing so was reinstated.

The possibility of delaying a disabled employee’s dismissal pending a reorganisation was relevant to whether his dismissal was justified.