Law digest: Employment law

Where a complaint of bias or misconduct on the part of an employment tribunal is raised in the notice of appeal, affidavits or witness statements are obtained from the parties, as are comments on the allegations from the employment tribunal chairman and, if appropriate, lay members. If issues arise as to what happened below the deponents, but not the members of the tribunal, will give evidence before the Employment Appeal Tribunal and be subject to cross-examination. It will then be for the EAT to carry out a fact-finding investigation in order to apply the “fairminded observer” test.