There has been a spate of unfair dismissal cases in the news
recently brought about by hard-done-by ex-employees. Most of these
cases are warranted but as the recession rumbles on, and people get
more and more desperate to cling on to an income, tribunals are
seeing an increase in blinkered and impossibly optimistic
claims.
For example, Alistair Sim was fired from his advertising job
after being convicted of beating up his girlfriend. You'd think
that he'd put his hands up and accept that committing a serious
crime is probably a valid sackable offence. But no, he cried unfair
dismissal and went to employment tribunal where perhaps
unsurprisingly it was unanimously ruled that he was NOT unfairly
dismissed.
Another hopeless case was that of Anthony Stewart, an estate
agent from Bournemouth, who claimed he was unfairly dismissed after
he watched hundreds of hours of porn on his office computer. He
claimed that the racy material distracted him from his online poker
addiction. Needless to say, the tribunal ruled against him.
Lastly, Phillippa Heath-Philpotts from London lost her unfair
dismissal case after she was sacked for punching a colleague during
a Christmas party. Her job? A teacher whose job involved helping
pupils with aggression.
If there is one positive from all these outlandish claims it
shows that the employment tribunal system in this country is pretty
accommodating. Employees may not win every time but at least they
are given the chance to appeal against their dismissals in the
first place.
To find out more about unfair dismissal, and what to do if you
have been unfairly dismissed then click here to go to our free unfair
dismissal guide.
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