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14 December 2012 / Ian Smith
Issue: 7542 / Categories: Features , Employment
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A sting in the tail

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Ian Smith reviews recent employment law decisions

Three cases this month concern important issues on dismissal law. The first and third are on old law, one concerning common law contractual liability (with a nasty sting in the tail) and the other concerning disciplinary warnings which contains a very useful resume by the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) president. The second case concerns another employment law immutable, the range of reasonable responses test for unfair dismissal, but with a modern twist to the arguments.

A cautionary tale

The decision of Briggs J in Smith v Trafford Housing Trust [2012] EWHC 3221 (Ch), [2012] All ER (D) 201 (Nov) concerning the unlawful disciplining and demotion of a housing manager because of an outside-work Facebook posting criticising proposals for same-sex marriage as “an equality too far” was widely reported in the press and, moreover, it contains a very interesting application (to the claimant’s great disadvantage on damages) of one of the more esoteric elements of employment law, the rule in Hogg v Dover College

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