We’ve just read that a judgement expected from the Court of Appeal today may have an impact on how tribunals reach their verdicts in unfair dismissal cases.
If the verdict goes in favour of the claimant, the tribunal may be required to consider whether a dismissal is unfair because it has disproportionately interefered with an employee’s human rights by affecting reputation and future job prospects.
We’ll update as we hear more…but we hope that common sense will prevail and this case is dismissed. This would otherwise surely only add to the difficulties employers already face if they fear an unfair dismissal claim even when an employee has behaved in a way that amounts to misconduct but might then make a claim that being sacked breaches their human rights!
If businesses are already wary about employing people this kind of decision will only add to the nervousness whichin the long run is to the detrimetn of potential employees too – nobody wins when over proetctive EU rulings start interfering in how business gets done.
As HR Consultants we spend many hours convincing people that employing staff really isn’t that bad….our job just got harder!