Earlier reported cases judgments, 2013

Section 98(4) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 does not require an employer to follow an appeal panel’s decision in every case, or only to depart from it in…

A person who has applied for employment may claim harassment occurring before employment begins under section 40(1)(b) of the Equality Act 2010, provided the…

There is no presumption that an ordained minister cannot work under a contract. The spiritual nature of the duties and the fact that the minister holds an…

For the purposes of calculating the time limit for an unfair dismissal claim, termination becomes effective when the employee knows of the dismissal or has had…

A deposit order under rule 20 need not expressly state that non-payment will result in striking out. It is sufficient that the order makes payment a condition…

Case-management decisions are interlocutory and attract a wide margin of judgment. An appellate tribunal may interfere only for a clear error of approach or…

For a duty to make reasonable adjustments, a tribunal must identify the employer’s provision, criterion or practice, the relevant comparison, the substantial…

In a constructive unfair dismissal claim, compensation under section 123 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 may include loss after the employee should have been…

Where a worker reasonably requests to be accompanied at a disciplinary or grievance hearing, the choice of companion is the worker’s, provided the companion…

A respondent who presents a response late loses any right to insist on participating in subsequent proceedings under rule 9 of the 2004 Rules. However, the…

A deduction authorised by an employment contract must still be lawful. An Employment Tribunal therefore has jurisdiction to decide whether a contractual…

The doctrine of frustration may apply to a contract of employment, including one terminable on short notice. For a disabled employee, however, the tribunal…

State immunity may legitimately restrict access to court, but the restriction must remain proportionate to the legitimate aim of protecting sovereign equality…

Diplomatic immunity is distinct from State immunity and generally has the wider scope. Its purpose is to ensure that a serving diplomat is not hindered in…

Where a public body is dissolved and a successor or responsible authority is substituted as respondent, the substituted party stands in the original…

Constructive dismissal is determined by asking objectively whether the employer, without reasonable and proper cause, conducted itself in a manner likely to…

Where an employer initially refuses flexible working but provides a consensual internal appeal, the appeal forms part of the decision-making process. If the…

An employment tribunal may take account of a litigant in person’s inaccurate or irrational closing submissions when assessing credibility. Equality of arms…

An Employment Appeal Tribunal should scrutinise a proposed consent order allowing an appeal. Judgments and orders should be set aside only where there is good…

A grievance appeal may be a significant feature of the implied term of trust and confidence. Failure to follow a grievance procedure, including failure to…

For National Minimum Wage purposes, the decisive question is whether the claimant was working during the claimed hours. That question requires a realistic…

When reducing compensation for contributory fault in an unfair dismissal case, a tribunal must identify the employee’s conduct, decide whether it was…

For the exclusion from ordinary unfair-dismissal claims under Employment Rights Act 1996, section 200(2)(a), the relevant question is whether the employee…

An employee may bring a statutory sexual-harassment claim against the fellow employee alleged to have committed the harassment without also proceeding against…

A fee-paid judicial office holder may be a worker under section 230(3)(b) of the Employment Rights Act 1996. A decision by a judicial office holder to allocate…

The ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures applies according to the process initiated, or which ought to have been initiated, rather…

A dismissal may be unfair because of serious procedural defects even where the employer had reasonable grounds to investigate and believed the employee guilty…

A domestic worker is not treated as a family member merely because accommodation and meals are provided. The National Minimum Wage family exemption requires an…

For the purposes of section 47B of the Employment Rights Act 1996, “subjected to” has the force of causation. It covers positive acts and deliberate omissions…

Apparent bias is assessed by asking whether a fair-minded and informed observer, having considered all relevant circumstances, would conclude that there was a…

The territorial scope of Employment Rights Act 1996 section 94(1) depends on statutory construction. The normal rule is that the place of employment is…

For the purposes of section 14(5) of the Employment Rights Act 1996, a refusal to perform work which the employee believes is not contractually required is…

Section 108(7) of the Equality Act 2010 expressly excludes post-relationship victimisation from the statutory remedy. A court cannot reverse that exclusion by…

Exploitation of a migrant domestic worker is not direct race or nationality discrimination merely because immigration status contributed to the worker’s…

Under Part XII of the Employment Rights Act 1996, an employer which enters a company voluntary arrangement becomes insolvent on approval of that arrangement.…

Judicial proceedings immunity protects parties, as well as witnesses, from civil claims based on evidence obtained, prepared or deployed for use at trial…

A Polkey deduction requires a predictive assessment of the chances that the actual employer would have dismissed fairly, assuming fair procedure. It is not a…

A complaint under section 47B of the Employment Rights Act 1996 may rely on a protected disclosure made after employment has ended, provided the disclosure…

For the purposes of the associated-employer provision in section 1(6) of the Equal Pay Act 1970, “company” is not confined to a limited company registered…

An enhanced redundancy policy may have contractual effect even where the policy as a whole contains non-contractual material and is absent from the statutory…