Slee v Secretary of State for Justice (1): Admn 19 Nov 2007

The claimant sought compensation under the Regulations as a result of her dismissal on the re-organisation of the Magistrates Court at Wimbledon from her position as court clerk. The EAT had allowed her claim for unfair dismissal. Her position on the re-organisation had been ring-fenced, for a choice between herself and a co-worker, but she had gone on long term sick-leave and then on maternity leave and had consented to the appointment of her co-worker. The Regulations provided that compensation would be payable: ‘after he has received from the Magistrates Courts committee either written notice that his office was to be terminated or written notice of termination of his office, been offered in writing any relevant employment which is reasonably comparable with the office he has lost’. The partied disagreed as to whether she had been offered suitable alternative employment.
Held: The appeal succeeded, and the case remitted to a different tribunal for a reconsideration. The letter from the Committee had been a notice satisfying the requirement in the Regulations, which did not require a dismissal notice as such.
The letter from the Committee was not an offer for acceptance, but an instruction to the claimant – she was given no choice, and nor was it effective having been found to amount to unlawful sex discrimination being in breach of the 1999 Regulations.
The Tribunal not having properly completed the steps required to decide whether the claimant was a clerk within the Regulations, the case was remitted for reconsideration.

Judges:

Silber J

Citations:

[2007] EWHC 2717 (Admin)

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Justices of the Peace Act 1949 (Compensation) Regulations 1978, Maternity and Parental Leave etc Regulations 1999, Justices of the Peace Act 1949 19(1)

Citing:

Appeal fromSecretary of State for Justice v Slee EAT 19-Jul-2007
EAT Unfair Dismissal – Constructive dismissal
Maternity Rights and Parental Leave – Sex discrimination
The Claimant was employed as a Magistrates’ Clerk and she brought successful claims to the . .
CitedMorton Sundour Fabrics v Shaw QBD 1966
The court considered whether the employee had been given a notice falling within the Act so as to give rise to a redundancy.
Held: Widgery J said: ‘there are certain formalities about the type of notice necessary to determine a contract of . .
CitedRetarded Childrens Aid Society v Day CA 1978
Lord Russell of Killowen said: ‘The function of the Employment Appeal Tribunal is to correct errors of law where one is established and identified. I think care must be taken to avoid concluding that an experienced industrial tribunal by not . .
ApprovedBerkshire and Oxfordshire Magistrates’ Courts v Gannon and Another QBD 10-May-2000
The applicants had been employed on the administrative staff of a Magistrates’ Court, spending 25-40% of their working day performing duties delegated to them by the clerk to the justices. The Tribunal held that, as an ‘appreciable’ part of their . .
CitedSinclair Roche and Temperley and others v Heard and Another EAT 22-Jul-2004
EAT Sex discrimination claim by former partners against the partnership and individual partners: direct discrimination (in both cases) and indirect discrimination (in one) found by ET.
(i) ET must, if . .

Cited by:

See AlsoSecretary of State for Justice v Slee (2) Admn 22-Jan-2010
The claimant had been unfairly dismissed from her position as justices’ clerk. After appeal her additional claims for retirement and other compensation under the 1978 Regulations had been remitted to the Employment tribunal which had reconsidered . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Employment, Legal Professions

Updated: 12 July 2022; Ref: scu.261499