EAT Transfer of Undertakings
TUPE; unfair dismissal; harassment based on religion. Tribunal comprising employment judge sitting alone.
The claimant asserted that her employment had been transferred under TUPE to the respondent. She claimed that she had been unfairly dismissed, and that the wife of a director of the company from which she had been transferred had harassed her at work by making a remark derogatory of her religious beliefs. The respondent argued that the Tribunal consisting of an employment judge sitting alone could not hear a case of harassment on grounds of religion. Further he argued that no sufficient findings of fact had been made to set up a transfer under TUPE: and that no sufficient findings had been made as to the employment status of the director’s wife. No issue was taken with findings that there had been unauthorised deductions of pay and a failure to pay holiday pay, but it was argued that the correct respondent had not been identified in light of the failure to make findings regarding the operation of TUPE.
Held: the arguments by counsel for the respondent are correct. Case remitted to a fresh Tribunal of three persons to be heard again, except in so far as relating to unauthorised deductions and holiday pay, where only the identity of the employer requires to be ascertained.
Stacey HL
[2015] UKEAT 0015 – 14 – 1401
Bailii
England and Wales
Employment
Updated: 28 December 2021; Ref: scu.543474