….despite what Abba may have you believe. In the case of Swallow Security Services Ltd and Millicent, the employer unrepresented at the Tribunal hearing may have been standing small, having lost an unfair dismissal case and had an award of £52k made against it -they were a fool, not playing by the rules.

Mr Lewis, Counsel, for the Respondent, his mind as cold as ice, had one more ace to play and appealed on a narrow point. The judges will decide, the likes of the employer had to abide.

The Eat  said that an Employment Tribunal is bound to consider contributory fault in assessing compensation. In this case the General Manager fell out with the MD and owner after going on a carribbean cruise not totally covered by her remaining holiday and in effect took 5 days unauthorised absence.

The MD, unsurprisingly, was dischuffed (possibly a made up word) but rather than disciplining her on her return, he effected a redundancy amongst office staff of one head. You won’t be surprised to hear that the General Manager was selected.

The Tribunal, equally unsurprisingly, found the dismissal unfair and made the award. The EAT said notwithstanding the fact that the employers had advanced redundancy as the reason for dismissal, an Employment Tribunal should still consider whether the employee had contributed to her dismissal by taking the unauthorised leave.

Anyway the employer does not wanna talk about the things it’s gone through.