The court explained the principle on ‘British Labour Pump’ as follows: ‘even if, judged in the light of the circumstances known at the time of dismissal, the employer’s decision was not reasonable because of some failure to follow a fair procedure yet the dismissal can be held to be fair if, on the facts proved before the industrial tribunal, the industrial tribunal comes to the conclusion that the employer could reasonably have decided to dismiss if he had followed a fair procedure.’ and ‘There is no need for an ‘all or nothing’ decision. If the industrial tribunal thinks there is a doubt whether or not the employee would have been dismissed, this element can be reflected by reducing the normal amount of compensation by a percentage representing the chance that the employee would still have lost his employment. ‘
Browne-Wilkinson J
[1983] IRLR 91
England and Wales
Citing:
Criticised – British Labour Pump Co Ltd v Byrne EAT 1979
The respondent had been dismissed for misconduct on the morning of the day on which he was dismissed. There had been previous misbehaviour but the industrial tribunal held that the case had to be determined on the basis of what had happened on that . .
Cited by:
Cited – The Post Office v Lewis CA 22-Apr-1997
The claimant had been found 100% responsible for his unfair dismissal. The Employment Appeal Tribunal had reversed that decision, and the respondent appealed that decision in turn. The claimant was a postman, and his employers considered that he had . .
Adopted – Polkey v A E Dayton Services Limited HL 19-Nov-1987
Mr Polkey was employed as a driver. The company decided to replace four van drivers with two van salesmen and a representative. Mr Polkey and two other van drivers were made redundant. Without warning, he was called in and informed that he had been . .
Cited – Lambe v 186K Ltd CA 29-Jul-2004
The claimant had been dismissed for redundancy, but the company had been found not to have consulted him properly, and he had therefore been unfairly dismissed. The tribunal had then found that even if consulted the result would not have been . .
Approved – O’Dea v ISC Chemicals Ltd CA 4-Aug-1995
Where the performance of union duties stopped a worker from doing the job he was employed for properly, a redundancy selection was possible. Here there was no redundancy comparator for a shop steward spending half his time on union activities. The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 17 September 2021; Ref: scu.183462
