Cumbria County Council v Bates, [2013] All ER (D) 165
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) allowed the employers' appeal, determining that an employment tribunal should have considered the post-termination conduct of an employee (his conviction and imprisonment) when deciding compensation for unfair dismissal.
Key Principles:
Post-termination conduct, especially significant events like convictions, can be relevant when calculating compensatory awards in unfair dismissal cases.
An employment tribunal should not unfairly exclude pertinent evidence when deciding on remedies or compensations.
The precedential value of cases (like Soros v Davison) must be carefully weighed against the specific circumstances of the present case.
Facts & Application: The employee, a teacher, was dismissed by the local authority for misconduct in April 2009. After bringing a case to the employment tribunal, he was determined to have been unfairly dismissed and was awarded £70,925, a sum that included significant pension loss compensation.
Subsequent to this ruling, the employee was convicted for assaulting a former pupil and was imprisoned. The employers argued that this conviction would have led to his dismissal even if the earlier unfair dismissal had not occurred, thereby impacting the awarded pension loss. However, the employment tribunal, in a review hearing, decided not to factor in this post-termination conduct based on the Soros v Davison[1994] case.
Upon appeal to the EAT, the tribunal's decision was overturned. The EAT highlighted the potential significance of the assault conviction and imprisonment in calculating the pension loss. The EAT also criticized the employment tribunal for its refusal to consider the employers' witness statement, thereby preventing them from effectively arguing their position. The EAT opined that the tribunal should have more carefully considered available evidence, including the employee's own testimony, when making its decision.
In this case before the Employment Appeal Tribunal, the decision to dismiss an employee's post-termination conviction from considerations during compensation deliberations for unfair dismissal was overturned. The EAT emphasised the importance of considering all pertinent evidence, including post-termination conduct, when calculating compensatory awards. This case is crucial for understanding the impact of post-termination actions on compensation for those seeking to appeal unfair dismissal decisions to the EAT.
