HR Articles

We previously blogged on the High Court case of Agoreyo v London Borough of Lambeth, in which the High Court held that the suspension of a teacher was a “knee jerk reaction” which breached the implied term of trust and confidence (enabling Ms Agoreyo to resign and claim constructive dismissal)

In Talon Engineering Ltd v Smith, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (the ‘EAT’) held that an employer’s refusal to postpone a disciplinary hearing for two weeks to enable the Claimant’s union official to accompany her rendered the subsequent dismissal unfair. In this case, the Claimant faced disciplinary action for sending unprofessional emails.

In NHS 24 v Pillar the claimant was a nurse practitioner who was dismissed for gross misconduct after she had failed to call 999 for a patient suffering a heart attack. The investigation into this Patient Safety Incident (PSI) also included two earlier PSIs, where no disciplinary action had been taken, including one which took place some 3 years earlier.

In Agoreyo v London Borough of Lambeth, three allegations of unreasonable force against pupils were made against a primary school teacher.

In the case of Elmore v The Governors of Darland High School, the EAT upheld the decision of the ET that the dismissal of a mathematics teacher on capability grounds was fair, despite the fact that the school’s appeal panel gave no reasons for its decision and none of its members were called as witnesses at tribunal.

An employee has a statutory right to be accompanied by either a trade union representative or colleague at a grievance or disciplinary hearing.

Most of us are likely to be spending Valentine’s Day at work and, although many people will be separated from their partners, those looking for love may not need to look any further than across the office or shop floor. Whilst good working relationships are important for a successful business, it is not uncommon for these relationships to stray beyond the boundaries of a professional working relationship and into the realms of romance.

You may have seen in the news the case of Mrs Wood, a senior nurse, who recorded her colleague’s temperature on a screening form at Heathrow Airport as 37.2C

The Employment Appeal Tribunal in Phoenix House Ltd v Stockman & Anor upheld a Tribunal’s decision that the dismissal of an employee on the basis of an irretrievable breakdown in the working relationship was unfair but disagreed that the ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures applied to such a situation.

In Nayak v Royal Mail Group, the EAT upheld the tribunal’s decision that an employer’s genuine and reasonable belief that an employee was no longer permitted to work in the UK was sufficient to show that he had been dismissed for some other substantial reason (SOSR).