Case Studies - Page 14 of 24

Employee-favourable 2007

Your dismissal letter must say why you were sacked, not only that you can appeal.

Your employer must properly investigate and clearly explain why you are being dismissed.

Employee-favourable 2007

Bringing up your settlement talks to make you look bad can backfire on your employer.

Your employer cannot use "without prejudice" protection as cover to punish you for having taken part in settlement talks.

Settlement Without Prejudice

Employee-favourable 2007

Sitting an exam counts as day-to-day life, even if you never sit one again

Being disadvantaged in a single exam or assessment is real evidence of a disability. You don't need your whole life to be affected.

Disability Discrimination Employment Tribunal Reasonable Adjustments

Employee-favourable 2007

Counselling is not enough if your employer knows your workload is making you ill.

A counselling service does not discharge your employer's duty of care if the real problem is your workload.

Employer duties work-related-stress

Employer-favourable 2007

You cannot win a discrimination claim just by showing you were treated differently.

You need more than a protected characteristic and a bad outcome to shift the burden onto your employer.

Discrimination Equality Act

Mixed 2006

Recording your hearing can help you, but recording the panel afterwards usually cannot

A recording of your own disciplinary or appeal hearing can be used as evidence in an unfair dismissal claim. A recording of the panel's private deliberations after you leave the room usually cannot, because the law protects that discussion on public policy grounds.

Disciplinary Disciplinary procedure Evidence and records Procedural Fairness Unfair Dismissal

Mixed 2006

Your compensation can be reduced if you would have been dismissed anyway.

Even if a tribunal finds your dismissal was unfair, your compensation can be reduced, including to nil, if the tribunal concludes you would have been fairly dismissed anyway had the employer followed a proper process.

Compensation Polkey Reduction Unfair Dismissal

Employee-favourable 2006

A sustained pattern of small, spiteful behaviour from colleagues can be bullying, and your employer can be liable for not stopping it.

Bullying doesn't have to be one big incident. A sustained pattern of smaller things can be just as serious in law, and your employer's duty to act starts the moment they know about it.

Bullying Employer duties Grievance procedure Harassment

Mixed 2006

Your employer cannot use their own failure to ask about your needs as a defence.

Your employer not asking what adjustments you need is not, on its own, against the law, but it cannot use that silence as an excuse to do nothing either.

Disability Discrimination Employer duties Equality Act Occupational Health Reasonable Adjustments

Mixed 2005

In a discrimination claim, the burden of proof can shift to your employer.

Point to facts suggesting discrimination and the burden moves to your employer to explain themselves, so you don't need outright proof to get a claim off the ground.

Discrimination Employment Tribunal Equality Act Evidence and records

Employee-favourable 2005

A written complaint can count as a grievance even without the right wording

A written complaint can count as a grievance even without formal wording or a full list of every incident.

Grievance procedure

Employee-favourable 2005

An employer who knows about your excessive hours and does nothing can still be liable.

It comes down to what the employer knew. If they could see the hours were doing you harm and let them carry on, the liability is theirs, whether or not you ever raised it and however willing you looked.

Working Hours