That's gotta hurt!!

[Employment Law Services]

We recently posted on our blog about a Dunfermline electronics company who were ordered to pay an award of £8004 to a production operative for unfair dismissal after he was sacked for not clocking out to attend a hospital appointment.

Staff had contracts of employment, the company had HR policies yet a costly decision that fell foul of current employment laws was still made..........with the number of employment tribunal claims up by 15% last year and an increasing number of solicitors willing to take on aggrieved employees on a 'No Win - No Fee' basis, how many other businesses could find themselves in a similar, or even more costly situation.

With >25 statutory rights for employees on the books and >23 changes made to employment legislation last year is it too much to keep up with?

Should the governement put limits on the number and frequency of changes it makes to employment law?

 

[Scottish Business Owner]

I only live a few miles from that factory and heard about this from a few people before reading it in the Dunfermline Press.

I think the company deserved the fine here as that was clearly not a sufficient response to what actually happened. Policies etc are not really the issue as I dont think you could even enforce it if it was in a contract of employment.

What would have been your advice here Gary surely this was over the top?

 

[Virtuo]

I suppose it must be more difficult for companies these days as despite attempts on behalf of an employee to mitigate their losses, the job market is still pretty contracted and so any award will be likely to be higher due to the potential for long term loss of earnings.

I was reading one the other day about an employee getting sacked for giving away some cheese free with a hamburger....

 

[Employment Law Services]

What would have been your advice here Gary surely this was over the top?

Without knowing the full details its difficult to advise but if the reports of this being a 'one-off' are true (something that should've been identified during an initial investigation) then I'd have been inclined to have recommended that either no action was taken or a simple written warning was issued.

This case highlights clearly that even with policies and contracts in place, employers can still get it horribly wrong and that the cost of doing so can be considerably high.

A large organisation like this one might very well be able to absorb an £8004 award plus another couple of grand in legal fees but could a company with 10 staff turning over £125,000 be able to as easily?

Businesses insure against fire, theft, public liability, etc but often ignore HR and H&S at their peril!