Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

This week’s case round up

by Personnel Today 12 Dec 2000
by Personnel Today 12 Dec 2000

Non
consensual termination

Cole v
London Borough of Hackney IDS Brief 674 EAT

Cole’s job
ceased to exist following a reorganisation. Her options were either to take up
a new position if a comparable job was available (which there was not) or to
apply for other vacant posts. She could also opt for a severance package.

Cole was
told she was not likely to be successful at interview for a vacant post but the
council omitted to inform her that she had priority rights in that regard.
Believing any application for a vacant position would be unsuccessful, Cole
asked to take voluntary redundancy and the council agreed.

Cole then
complained to the tribunal that she had been unfairly selected for redundancy
and unfairly dismissed. The tribunal held there was no dismissal but rather a
mutual termination of the contract. If however, there had been a dismissal,
Cole’s application for voluntary severance constituted a dismissal for “some
other substantial reason” and the council had not acted unfairly.

Cole
successfully appealed to the EAT which held that but for the council’s decision
to reorganise Cole would not have applied for the severance payment. There was
no consensual termination, rather this was a dismissal by reason of redundancy.

 

Ill-considered implications

Osborne v
Valve (Engineering Services), unreported, November 2000 EAT

Osborne commenced
tribunal proceedings for unfair dismissal, sex discrimination and breach of
contract but shortly afterwards realised the breach of contract claim was
likely to exceed the tribunal’s £25,000 jurisdictional limit. She applied to
withdraw that part of her claim in order to pursue the matter in the High
Court.

The
tribunal accepted her withdrawal and made an order dismissing the breach of
contract claim. Osborne subsequently learned that the order for dismissal
constituted an adjudication on the merits of the breach of contract claim and
by the principle of res judicata she would be prevented from bringing future
proceedings on the same matter. She sought a review of the decision but was
unsuccessful.

On appeal,
the EAT found that the chairman was aware of Osborne’s reason for withdrawing
the breach of contract claim, namely the transfer of the claim to another court
claim but failed to properly consider the implications when making the order
for “dismissal”. The appeal was allowed.

Personnel Today
Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
Government aims to cut gender pay gap through speedier tribunals
next post
Report summary: on-line recruiting

You may also like

Employees going into office just 1.5 days a...

15 Aug 2022

Barrister wins gender critical belief discrimination claim

27 Jul 2022

‘Patchy’ mental health services failing ethnic minority communities

11 Jul 2022

Global study highlights hypertension treatment failings

8 Jul 2022

NICE sets out new guideline on managing depression

8 Jul 2022

Half of employees struggle to switch off on...

8 Jul 2022

Five steps for organisations across the globe to...

8 Jun 2022

The Search for Talent: Six Major Employer Pitfalls

24 May 2022

Grants scheme set up to support women’s health...

16 May 2022

How music can help to ease anxiety at...

9 May 2022
  • 6 reasons why work-based learning is better than traditional training PROMOTED | A recent Fortune/Deloitte survey found that 71% of CEOs are anticipating that this year’s biggest business disrupter...Read more
  • Strengthening Scotland’s public services through virtual recruiting PROMOTED | This website is Scotland's go-to place for job seekers looking to apply for roles in public services...Read more
  • What’s next for L&D? Enter Alchemist… PROMOTED | It’s time to turn off the tedious and get ready for interactive and immersive learning experiences...Read more
  • Simple mistakes are blighting the onboarding experience PROMOTED | The onboarding of new hires is a company’s best chance...Read more
  • Preventing Burnout: How can HR help key workers get the right help? PROMOTED | Workplace wellbeing may seem a distant memory...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+