Constructive Dismissal Asghar v Habib When an employee resigns in response to a fundamental breach of contract on the part of the employer, then the law treats this as a (constructive) dismissal. The resignation needs to take place promptly however or a tribunal may find that the employee has chosen to ‘affirm’ the contract and…
Appeal hearings Elmore v Darland High School In Elmore v Darland High School, Ms Elmore was a maths teacher. Maths had been identified by inspectors as being a problem area in the school and Ms Elmore’s class had performed poorly. Observations of her lessons had led to concerns about her performance and a formal procedure…
Conduct dismissals JP Morgan Securities plc v Ktorza In an unfair dismissal claim, it is for the employer to prove what the reason for dismissal was and that it fits into one of the potentially fair categories of reason such as ‘conduct’, ‘capability’ or ‘redundancy’. Generally, when employers dismiss for ‘conduct’ they are focusing on…
The UK will leave the EU at the end of March 2019, but any EU law that comes into force before we leave will continue to apply, even when the Brexit process is complete. The General Data Protection Regulation, for example, comes into force in May next year and will certainly apply in the UK.…
Back in 2016 the European Court of Human Rights ruled in the case of Bărbulescu v Romania that an employer did not violate an employee’s right to privacy and respect for his private correspondence when he printed off 45 pages of personal messages he had sent using the What’s App account that he had installed…
It seems like hardly a week goes by without another employer in the ‘gig-economy’ being told by an employment tribunal that it actually has to give employment rights to the people that it claims are just freelancers finding work through their app. Working for or Working with? Workers at Deliveroo, Citysprint and Addison Lee have…
The case of the ‘gay cake’ Lee v Asher’s Baking Company Remember this case? Well, the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal has now spoken. Here’s a reminder of the facts: Mr Lee had asked the bakery to decorate a cake with the words ‘Support Gay Marriage’, along with a picture of the Sesame Street Characters,…
Inappropriate warning led to unfair dismissal Bandara v British Broadcasting Corporation Mr Bandara was a senior producer at the BBC. He was given a final written warning (which the Tribunal later found to have been ‘manifestly inappropriate’). Further gross misconduct was later alleged and Mr Bandara was dismissed. Unfair dismissal? No, the Tribunal said. It…
National Minimum Wage – Sleeping on the job? Can a worker still be working even when he or she is asleep? It seems like a silly question, but it lies at the heart of an important set of cases recently heard by the Employment Appeal Tribunal. All three involved workers were required to stay on their…
Employment law in the Queen’s Speech The Conservatives may have lost their majority in the general election, but they remain in power. Their manifesto promised a new right for parents to take leave on the death of a child, a right to unpaid time off to care for sick relatives and a right to request…