Weekly Issue 659

Problems with email

A survey has found that almost a half of workers get so many emails that they cannot empty their inbox in the course of a working day (...).

Reducing compensation

Tribunals are entitled by law to reduce a complainant’s compensation by an amount that is “just and equitable”, depending on the circumstances of their dismissal. In Parkview Care Ltd v Fenn, the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that a five per cent reduction was perversely low, given that the employee had disappeared for two hours in a company car and then lied about where he had been and what he had been doing (...).

Individual blame

Although tribunals are able to reduce a claimant’s compensation by an amount that they consider to be “just and equitable” depending on the circumstances of the dismissal, the Employment Appeal Tribunal held in Wheeley v University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust that tribunals have to identify the individual aspects of the conduct that led to the dismissal before assessing the extent to which the claimant was to blame (...).