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Law and HR, done differently.

Football Club gets it right with sacking for a pornographic email sent 5 years ago.

Was it a repudiatory breach of contract to forward an obscene and pornographic email at work?

Yes, held the High Court in Williams v Leeds United Football Club.

Mr Williams, a senior employee, brought a claim for wrongful dismissal. He had been dismissed, with notice, on grounds of redundancy. However, Within a week of being given notice, the Club summarily dismissed him on grounds of gross misconduct. It had discovered that 5 years ago, he had forwarded an email described as “dirty Leeds” containing pornographic material to a junior female employee, and two others. The club refused to pay him the balance of his notice pay, approx £200,000.

The notice pay claim was dismissed. Although it was clear that the club had planned to stop paying his notice pay before notice was served (knowing it to be a breach of contract) and had investigators seeking evidence of misconduct, there was no evidence that they knew of the offensive email before redundancy notice was given. The sending of the email 5 1/2 years earlier was a breach of the duty of trust and confidence, particularly given his senior position. The nature of the images, the fact that it could amount to harassment of the female employee and the potential consequences to the club was sufficiently serious to amount to repudiatory conduct. The Club was therefore entitled to dismiss him without notice.


Football Club gets it right with sacking for a pornographic email sent 5 years ago.

Join the hundreds of businesses that trust Peach for their unrivalled legal and HR services.

Peach Law was born out of a desire to provide clients with more flexible specialist employment law and HR expertise without the traditional call centre approach and without the need for rigid and expensive law firms. You’ll only ever speak to the senior individuals working on your account. You’ll get the information you need, when you need it.

A refreshing blend of legal & HR expertise.

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Shared Parental Leave – are you ready?

The Employment Relations Minister has issued a about the introduction of Shared Parental Leave.

Further, the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills has developed an online calculator to help prospective parents calculate their eligibility and pay.  To find out more about shared parental leave, see the see the Acas Good Practice Guide or the BIS Technical Guide

If you need assistance, give us a call and we can provide you with a  policy to insert into your handbook.

0161 478 3800

 


Shared Parental Leave – are you ready?

Join the hundreds of businesses that trust Peach for their unrivalled legal and HR services.

Peach Law was born out of a desire to provide clients with more flexible specialist employment law and HR expertise without the traditional call centre approach and without the need for rigid and expensive law firms. You’ll only ever speak to the senior individuals working on your account. You’ll get the information you need, when you need it.

A refreshing blend of legal & HR expertise.

Arrange a callback

Sex discrimination to circulate a nude portrait to staff?

It has been reported that a City lawyer has brought a claim for unfair dismissal and sex discrimination because she says that she was sacked after she objected to a boss circulating a nude portrait of his wife.

She claims that she lost her £184,000 a year job ‘ because she refused to act like a woman who ‘knows her place’.

Miss Rowe told the Central London employment tribunal: ‘Many people found the picture awkward. The women did not know how to react or not to react’.

Miss Rowe denies suggestions by her employer that she was too aggressive and was always looking for issues to complain about.

‘Some of the men in the office could not countenance the fact I was a woman who was assertive and forthright,’ said Miss Rowe.

‘They ignored or tolerated male behaviour which could perhaps be described as blameworthy’.

‘I was seen as a woman who did not know her place. The culture was chauvinistic’.

Her employer denies the claims.  The Tribunal is ongoing.

This behaviour could constitute sexual harassment as it is “unwanted conduct that has the purpose or effect of violating a person’s dignity or creating an offensive, intimidating or hostile environment.”

Do you have policies in place dealing with harassment in the workplace?  If not, give us a call.

If you do have policies, do you provide annual training?  A Tribunal will not only look to see that you have policies in place but will also question whether you have trained your staff on the policies.


Sex discrimination to circulate a nude portrait to staff?

Join the hundreds of businesses that trust Peach for their unrivalled legal and HR services.

Peach Law was born out of a desire to provide clients with more flexible specialist employment law and HR expertise without the traditional call centre approach and without the need for rigid and expensive law firms. You’ll only ever speak to the senior individuals working on your account. You’ll get the information you need, when you need it.

A refreshing blend of legal & HR expertise.

Arrange a callback

Tribunal Awards Increase 2015

The awards cap is being increased where the dismissal (or detriment, or whatever it is that is being complained about) takes place on or after 6th April 2015.  The main changes are:
• max for a week’s pay – £475 (prev £464)
• max compensatory award – £78,335 (prev £76,574)

Tribunal Awards Increase 2015

Join the hundreds of businesses that trust Peach for their unrivalled legal and HR services.

Peach Law was born out of a desire to provide clients with more flexible specialist employment law and HR expertise without the traditional call centre approach and without the need for rigid and expensive law firms. You’ll only ever speak to the senior individuals working on your account. You’ll get the information you need, when you need it.

A refreshing blend of legal & HR expertise.

Arrange a callback