Press Release: Irwin Mitchell and Katie Bard show employment tribunal dangers

Birmingham businesses have been given an insight into what happens at an employment tribunal and have been advised on how to avoid them.

Around 75 representatives were invited by Birmingham-based law firm Irwin Mitchell and Katie Bard recruitment to watch a mock employment tribunal, with real barristers and an employment judge going through an actual case from 2007.

A female employee had been dismissed after visiting explicit websites during her lunch break. The court eventually ruled in her favour citing several reasons - including a lack of clear policy - for finding against the employer.

Fergal Dowling, partner at Irwin Mitchell, said: “This real-life case highlighted why employers need clear behaviour policies in place.

“In this example, the judge ruled in favour of the claimant because there were no clear guidelines in the workplace or in her contract forbidding the use of the type of sites she accessed.

“In addition the clause regarding what constituted misconduct was too vague and open to interpretation. There were inconsistencies in the way the employer treated staff too.

“However, the twist came when awarding compensation as the judge advised he would reduce the amount paid to her by 50 per cent because he felt she should have known that the websites she accessed could cause offence to others, and as such she contributed to her own downfall in her behaviour.

“Our advice is to make sure you have legally-sound guidelines for all employees to read and adhere to. That will help reduce conflict and simplify any disciplinary hearing.”

Julie Fouad, brand development director at Birmingham-based Katie Bard recruitment, said: “We invited our clients to help increase their awareness of how cases work when they get to the tribunal.

“However, we feel many of these outcomes can be avoided by improving communication with employees and ensuring issues are addressed reasonably and consistently.

“Katie Bard works very closely with the companies and candidates we represent with a view to creating rewarding partnerships.

“We feel events like this help to ensure effective partnerships are sustained and businesses prosper.

“The feedback has been very positive and the guests learnt a lot from the process. It's definitely something we will look at organising again, because it's so important to employers and employees alike."

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