EAT Practice and Procedure : Bias, Misconduct and Procedural Irregularity
The employer, a company, failed to provide a witness statement for the hearing of an unfair dismissal claim. There were disputed issues of fact as to the manner in which the Tribunal dealt with the claim – including in particular (1) whether the Tribunal offered the company’s director an opportunity to give oral evidence, (2) whether the director offered to give oral evidence, (3) whether the Employment Judge told the director that the company would lose without a witness statement, (4) whether the reason for dismissal was conceded by the Claimant. These issues were resolved in favour of the Claimant. In particular the Tribunal did offer the company’s director an opportunity to give evidence and explained that without evidence the company would be likely to lose the case. Held, applying Mensah v East Hertfordshire NHS Trust [1998] IRLR 531 (especially paragraphs 28 and 36) and Radakovits v Abbey National plc [2010] IRLR 307 (especially paragraph 24) that the Tribunal had acted properly and was not in breach of any legal duty.
David Richardson J
[2013] UKEAT 0318 – 12 – 0512
Bailii
England and Wales
Employment
Updated: 26 November 2021; Ref: scu.518799