The employee, a train ticket conductor, was accused without direct evidence of manipulating her machine to produce false tickets which she was then said to have sold.
Held: Elias LJ said that the Tribunal: ‘has to ask whether the employer acted within the range of reasonable responses open to a reasonable employer. It is not for the Tribunal to substitute its own view for that of the reasonable employer. That principle has been enunciated in the line of cases beginning with British Home Stores v Burchell . . and affirmed in cases such as Post Office v Foley [2000] IRLR 827, Sainsbury’s Supermarkets Limited v Hitt [2003] IRLR 23, London Ambulance Service NHS Trust v Small [2009] IRLR 563 and, most recently, Orr v Milton Keynes Council [2011] IRLR 317.’
The court rejected a submission that Burchell must be reconsidered allowing the ET to act as a primary decision maker on an employee’s dismissal.
Judges:
Maurice Kay VP, Lord Justice Elias and Sir Stephen Sedley
Citations:
[2012] EWCA Civ 1470, [2012] WLR(D) 353, [2013] IRLR 107, [2013] ICR 525
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – British Home Stores Ltd v Burchell EAT 1978
B had been dismissed for allegedly being involved with a number of other employees in acts of dishonesty relating to staff purchases. She had denied the abuse. The tribunal had found the dismissal unfair in the methods used to decide to dismiss her. . .
Cited – Foley v Post Office; HSBC Bank Plc (Formerly Midland Bank Plc) v Madden CA 31-Jul-2000
When an Employment Tribunal looked at whether a dismissal was reasonable, the test related not to an assessment of what tribunal members would think or do, but rather whether to ask whether the employer’s response was within a ‘band or range of . .
Cited by:
Cited – Clarence High School and Another v Boardman CA 15-Mar-2013
The claimant school teacher had been dismissed, after a finding that she had assaulted a pupil. She denied the assualt.
Held: The School’s appeal against the decision of the EAT to re-instate the claim of unfair dismissal succeeded. The EAT . .
Cited – Reilly v Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council SC 14-Mar-2018
Burchell case remains good law
The appellant head teacher had been dismissed for failing to disclose the fact that her partner had been convicted of a sex offence. She now appealed from rejection of her claim for unfair dismissal.
Held: The appeal was dismissed. The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Employment, Human Rights
Updated: 06 November 2022; Ref: scu.465880