EAT UNFAIR DISMISSAL – Reasonableness of dismissal
UNFAIR DISMISSAL – Polkey deduction
Two friends had worked together in the same company for a number of years, when they fell out. The minority shareholder of the two was dismissed. Though both parties contended that the date of termination was 24 July 2014 (the Claimant employee contending he had been dismissed, without any proper procedure being adopted, the employer contending he had resigned) the ET found that there was a dismissal on 5 September 2014, for some other substantial reason (a breakdown in trust and confidence) which was unfair because a ‘procedure’ (unspecified) was not followed. The Judge declined to make any Polkey reduction even when invited to reconsider his decision, despite the fact that the Claimant had actively been negotiating terms on which to leave at the time of his dismissal, and it was clear that the employment relationship was either beyond the point of no return or close to it. It was held on appeal that reasoning that a potentially fair dismissal was unfair because of the absence of a procedure, without identifying what the procedure was, was inadequate to sustain the finding, and that on the findings made by the Judge that the parties were in the course of negotiating terms on which to part when the Claimant was dismissed, and to the effect that the relationship had come close to if not crossed the point at which trust and confidence could not be salvaged, it was perverse to hold there was insufficient evidence on which to assess that there was a chance that the employment would not continue. The case was remitted to a new Tribunal for re-determination.
Langstaff J
[2016] UKEAT 0263 – 15 – 0902
Bailii
England and Wales
Employment
Updated: 18 January 2022; Ref: scu.565986