EAT The employer, the club’s former manager, had started High Court proceedings for breach of contract. The employee raised the question that he had been constructively dismissed by the employer. The employee, in order to prevent his case from being time-barred, started Industrial Tribunal proceedings for constructive dismissal. The same issue thus arose in the High Court proceedings as arose in the Industrial Tribunal proceedings, namely, whether the employers had constructively dismissed the employee.
Held: The correct exercise of the Tribunal’s discretion was a decision that the Industrial Tribunal proceedings should be stayed, pending a resolution of the High Court proceedings which included the same issue. It is advisable where an employee is bringing both industrial tribunal proceedings for unfair dismissal and intends to sue for wrongful dismissal at common law, for him to make it clear that that is what he is doing, and that the industrial tribunal proceedings, which have of course, as is notorious, a very short time limit imposed upon them are only brought to satisfy that very short time limit.
Judges:
Wood J
Citations:
[1989] ICR 489
Statutes:
Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978
Cited by:
Cited – P v West Dorset General Hospital NHS Trust EAT 9-Jun-2004
EAT Practice and Procedure – Postponement or stay – Application for stay of ET proceedings pending GMC professional misconduct hearing refused. No error of law; if so; stay appropriate. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Employment, Litigation Practice
Updated: 04 May 2022; Ref: scu.519357
