The Claimant brought multiple complaints to the Employment Tribunal, including of harassment related to disability and failure to comply with the duty of reasonable adjustment, in relation to what she said was her excessive workload during a particular period of her employment. Her claimed excessive workload was also said to be one of the things contributing to a cumulative breach of the implied duty of trust and confidence, on which a complaint of constructive unfair dismissal was founded. Those complaints all failed.
The Claimant appealed. Ultimately the only grounds permitted to proceed to a Full Hearing in the EAT all related to the Tribunal’s decision to refuse an application to admit a document into evidence, made during closing submissions at the Hearing before it. The document was a print-out, which the Claimant had in her possession, showing information about her caseload on a particular day falling during the window to which those complaints related (‘the Caseload Document’). The EAT had stayed the appeal to allow a reconsideration application to be made. Upon reconsideration the Tribunal had considered the Caseload Document and its implications, but, having done so, had affirmed its original decisions.
Held: The Tribunal had erred in its decision not to admit the Caseload Document into evidence. Had the Tribunal not already done so, the EAT would have remitted the matter to the same Tribunal to consider the implications of the document. The Claimant’s counsel’s submission that there should still be a remittal, but to a differently constituted Tribunal, was not accepted. As the Tribunal had properly considered the significance of the Caseload Document, in its reconsideration decision, no remittal was required, and the appeal was simply dismissed.
Citations:
[2019] UKEAT 0277 – 17 – 2511
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Employment
Updated: 25 November 2022; Ref: scu.650905
