Employment Matters - January 2023 - Commercial

Published 10 enero 2023

Our pick of the most interesting cases from the end of 2022 are covered in this alert. 2023 may well be a year of change, with reforms to flexible working and family rights making their way through Parliament. For more information on these potential changes please see our December 2022 alert here.

1. Industrial action: Use of agency workers

The High Court has granted permission for a judicial review of the legislation which allows agency workers to be used to fill in for striking workers.

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2. Without prejudice: Settlement offer made at a grievance hearing was “without prejudice”

The EAT has upheld a tribunal judgment that a settlement offer made at a grievance hearing should be treated as being “without prejudice” and therefore not admissible as evidence at an employment tribunal hearing.

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3. Redundancy: The importance of consultation

The EAT has overturned an employment tribunal’s decision that an employee who was made redundant without warning or consultation should receive no compensation for his unfair dismissal. 

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4. Settling claims: Wording of COT3 agreements

The Court of Appeal has upheld an EAT decision that a claim of knowingly helping another to commit an act of victimisation was validly waived by a COT3 agreement.

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5. Tribunal awards: Mitigation of loss

The EAT has held that an employment tribunal should have considered evidence before holding that a claimant’s failure to look for jobs did not amount to an unreasonable failure to mitigate her loss.

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6. COVID-19: Dismissal of employee who stayed away from work during covid-19 was not automatically unfair

The Court of Appeal has upheld a tribunal decision that an employee was not automatically unfairly dismissed for leaving work and refusing to return at the start of the first COVID-19 lockdown. 

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7. Employment tribunals: Statistics published

Employment tribunal quarterly statistics for July to September 2022 show a decrease in claims overall, a slight increase in single claims, and a decrease in multiple claims.

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