Regulation 4 of the Requirements for Teachers (Scotland) Regulations 2005 (‘the 2005 Regulations’), provides that a local education authority can employ only registered teachers. The issue in this appeal (brought by the local education authority) is whether the term ‘registered teacher’ in that provision simply means a teacher whose details have been entered on to the register (‘the Register’) maintained by the General Teaching Council of Scotland (‘GTCS’) (intervening), or whether it requires that the teacher is registered in that part of the Register that is relevant to the type of teaching work undertaken, i.e. whether registration is in the part of the Register dealing with primary schools, secondary schools or further education institutions or which deals with a particular subject matter which the teacher is engaged to teach. The Claimant in this matter was dismissed by the Respondent from his role as a secondary school teacher once it emerged that he was only registered as a Further Education teacher. In a claim of unfair dismissal brought by the Claimant, the Respondent asserted that the dismissal was by reason of there being a statutory bar on continued employment within the meaning of s.98(2)(d) of the Employment Rights Act 1996. The Employment Tribunal rejected the Respondent’s reason for dismissal on the basis that there was no statutory bar to continued employment
Held: Dismissing the appeal, that on a proper interpretation of the 2005 Regulations, the only restriction on a local education authority was against employing an unregistered teacher. Thus, there was no statutory restriction on continuing to employ the Claimant and the Tribunal was correct to so conclude. Appeals against the Tribunal’s findings on the levels of compensation and pension loss were also dismissed.
Citations:
[2019] UKEAT 19 – 0001 – 0708
Links:
Jurisdiction:
Scotland
Employment
Updated: 02 September 2022; Ref: scu.643079