In 1998 the New Labour Government introduced the Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA) to introduce a statutory protection the employees who blow the whistle on wrongdoing in the workplace. In the language of whistleblowing law when a worker blows the whistle this is a ‘protected disclosure’ and it is unlawful to place a worker at … Continue reading In the Public Interest →

This is a very brief post on today’s interesting but, in the grand scheme of things probably insignificant Supreme Court decision in The United States of America v Nolan on the duty to consult with a trade union on redundancies. In the case the claimant, Ms Nolan, was employed as a civilian worker in a … Continue reading The Duty to Consult →

Yesterday I referred to the case of The Secretary of State for Justice v Hibbert. The case is not in of itself an important one as it does not alter the way employment law operates in the UK but does provide a useful reminder on the importance of erring on the side of caution when … Continue reading Time is ticking … →

One of the situations a union rep occasionally is to talk down members who in an emotional state wish to resign their employment. They may have been publicly demeaned by their manager, been told they are subject to yet another (from their view) baseless misconduct charge against them or been told that for the third … Continue reading I Quit! →

I have recently been assisting a union member in a disciplinary investigation. The whole disciplinary process was a shambles and the decision highly dubious; the outcome was the member was issued a final written warning for misconduct. Both the member and I were disappointed with the outcome and could not see how the finding had … Continue reading The Risk of Appealing a Warning →

In law there are two main types of remedy available to a claimant pursuing litigation: legal and equitable. Legal remedies are the most common and cover things such as the payment of damages. In addition, there are equitable remedies that tend to aim to correct (rather than compensate) an unlawful act – an example in … Continue reading Can a Reinstatement Order be Enforced? →

There are five potentially fair reasons for dismissal under the Employment Rights Act 1996. Three of them form the majority of cases a union rep will face; these being conduct (i.e., misconduct cases), capability (i.e., sickness absence cases) and redundancy (i.e., well, the clue’s in the name!). The fourth is rare but is if there … Continue reading ACAS Code of Practice and SOSR Dismissals →