EAT Unfair Dismissal: Polkey Deduction
An Employment Tribunal held that the question to be decided was whether an employer could have dismissed fairly in the factual circumstances it found established. It repeated this expression three times, without any indication that it understood its role was to decide what the chances of a (fair) dismissal were; and, by the use of other expressions in the text, indicated that there may have been doubt about whether there would have been a fair dismissal. In broad context, there was much to be said on either side (some of which the Employment Tribunal clearly recognised) as to whether there would or would not have been a dismissal of the Claimant. The Employment Tribunal had either fallen into the error of assessing what it thought would happen (or that it was sufficient to establish a 100% deduction that there was a possibility of a fair dismissal) or failed to articulate its reasoning sufficiently clearly.
Other grounds of appeal were dismissed.
Langstaff P J
[2015] UKEAT 0427 – 14 – 2904
Bailii
England and Wales
Employment
Updated: 01 January 2022; Ref: scu.549117