Employment tribunals and courts
We look at four employment tribunal cases in which the claimants successfully argued that the mishandling of the disciplinary process rendered their dismissals unfair.
In Rentplus UK Ltd v Coulson, the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that an employer cannot escape the requirements of the "Acas code of practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures" by disguising a dismissal for misconduct or poor performance as a redundancy.
We look at four recent discrimination cases where the tribunals upheld the claims and ordered the employers to pay compensation, including one of the highest ever discrimination awards.
In Slade and another v Biggs and others, the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that the tribunal had been entitled to apply the 25% Acas uplift to the awards for aggravated damages and injury to feelings, given its findings of serious pregnancy discrimination.
In Grant v Hunter Price International Ltd and another, an employment tribunal refused to reduce the claimant's award of £73,853 for pregnancy discrimination and constructive dismissal for covertly recording meetings during a discriminatory disciplinary procedure.
In Curless v Shell International Ltd, the Court of Appeal upheld the tribunal decision that an email that contained legal advice on how to avoid a discriminatory dismissal is protected by legal privilege because it was not advice to act in an "underhand or iniquitous way".
In L v Q Ltd, the Court of Appeal held that the principle of open justice precludes an employment tribunal from accepting a claimant's request that its judgment not be published on the public register of tribunal decisions.
In Base Childrenswear Ltd v Otshudi, the Employment Appeal Tribunal considered the level of race discrimination compensation for an employee whose appeal against her dismissal and post-dismissal grievance were ignored.
In Antuzis and others v DJ Houghton Catching Services Ltd and others, the High Court held that the director and company secretary were both jointly and severally liable for the employer's statutory and contractual breaches.
In The British Council v Jeffery; Green v SIG Trading Ltd, the Court of Appeal held that whether or not an expatriate employee has sufficiently strong connections with Great Britain to come within the scope of British employment law is a question of fact, but that such an evaluation is a question of law.
Employment law cases: HR and legal information and guidance relating to employment tribunals and courts.