If your employer fired you and then offered your previous job back on lower pay, would you accept? In Tesco Stores Ltd v USDAW, Tesco proposed firing staff at certain distribution centres and rehiring them on lower pay. Three employees informed their union and brought claims against the supermarket. What happened? In 2007, Tesco wanted [...]
“It’s fine, she failed the test, dismissal was inevitable…” Not quite, said the Employment Appeal Tribunal. That assumption didn’t hold up in Ms J Davidson v National Express Ltd Even where misconduct seems clear-cut, employers still need to show how they assessed fairness and loss and not just why they dismissed an [...]
Poor dismissal process costs employer over £61k at Tribunal The recent case of Shah v Food Hub Limited has highlighted how shooting first and asking questions later can come back to bite employers. What happened: Mr Shah was a Field Sales Manager with 5 years’ service. His role required travel around the UK to meet [...]
Recruitment Discrimination “It’s fine we followed the scoring matrix, there’s no discrimination here…” That line didn’t hold up in Dr Nicholas Jones v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care [2025] EAT 76: a case that’s quietly reshaping how tribunals look at recruitment discrimination. It’s a reminder that a ‘fair process’ on paper [...]
“This won’t result in a tribunal claim, they haven’t even passed the interview stage!” Can you bring a whistleblowing claim if you have not yet passed the interview stage? The Claimant in Sullivan v Isle of Wight Council believed so. What happened? Sullivan applied for two positions with the Isle of Wright Council. [...]
Can an people in their 20s discriminate against an 18 year old on the ground of age? The headlines say wearing trainers cost the company £29k at Tribunal. The facts of Benassi v Maximus UK Services Ltd are a little more nuanced. What Happened? Ms Benassi, was an 18 year old Employment Adviser for Maximus, [...]
This week, we look at the case of Herbert v Main Group Services Ltd. What happened: Herbert worked as an Office Manager at the Respondent business for over 3 and a half years. The Respondent is a scaffolding and brickwork company. The Operations Manager and Managing Director were the Claimant's brother-in-law and husband's sister, respectively. [...]
Is approaching a celebrity of the opposite s€x for a selfie an act of misogyny? Police Scotland thought so and it cost them. Tunnock & Jones v The Chief Constable of the Police Service of Scotland: What happened - Tunnock & Jones were male firearm officers. The unit had a prior history of misogynistic behaviour [...]
'We've always been flexible with remote working since COVID...' Sound familiar? Many employers think their hybrid policies tick the flexible working box. But what happens when an employee wants to go fully remote? Miss Wilson found out the hard way. As a Senior Manager at the FCA earning £140,000, she'd been working from home successfully [...]
Is it right for a company to decrease an employee’s performance grading during their paternity leave? It sounds like satire, but it really happened. In Reeves v Goldman Sachs International, following the birth of his first child, Reeves started struggling to balance his childcare responsibilities with the demands of work. Confiding in his boss, he [...]
'Can we just say no to flexible working requests?' Flexible working requests often leave HR managers scratching their heads. When can you refuse? What process should you follow? And what happens if you get it wrong? This is exactly what happened in the case of Ms L Hedger vs British Deaf Association. The claim turned [...]
“Don’t worry about that grievance, we’ll just backdate the dismissal letter…” In HR it can feel like there is constant pressure to make sure everything is done ‘by the book’. Wright-Turner v London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and another showed that ignorance of correct HR processes and employee mental health can cost millions… What [...]
When Time Doesn’t Heal Harassment If you think time alone can bury workplace misconduct, think again. The Employment Appeal Tribunal’s decision in Logo v Payone GmbH [2025] EAT 95 is a wake-up call for employers who assume historic complaints are safely out of reach. Turns out, if the conduct was serious and the delay [...]
If your contracts say one thing but reality says another…guess which one wins? That’s been the gig economy’s favourite comfort blanket for years. But the BCA Logistics case shows how fast that 'protection' can unravel when the clause is all theory and no reality. They had contracts full of legal wording, including a neat substitution clause [...]
