The client gets what the client wants

September 28, 2007

In Greenwood v Whiteghyll Plastics Limited (UKEAT/0219/07), the facts of the case were that Whiteghyll Plastics was a shopfitting business who had a major contract with Morrison’s supermarket chain. Mr Greenwood was employed by Whiteghyll as a shopfitter working on the Morrison’s contract. Whiteghyll received three complaints from Morrison’s about the quality of Mr Greenwood’s work, and consequently Morrison’s asked Whiteghyll to stop Mr Greenwood from further work on its stores.

After complying with Morrison’s request, Whiteghyll considered whether it had any alternative work for Mr Greenwood. Upon deciding it did not, Whiteghyll proceeded to dismiss Mr Greenwood.

Mr Greenwood claimed unfair dismissal at the Employment Tribunal. However, the Tribunal found that Whiteghyll’s decision to dismiss Mr Greenwood in response to pressure from Morrison’s, constituted a fair reason to dismiss for ‘some other substantial reason’ (that being one of the five fair reasons for which an employee can be dismissed). Morrison’s was an important client, and as such Whiteghyll had very little option but to dismiss in the absence of alternative work.

Mr Greenwood appealed to the Employment Appeal Tribunal (‘EAT’). The EAT accepted dismissal in these circumstances was potentially fair for some other substantial reason. However, it said that the Tribunal had failed to consider the nature and extent of any injustice caused to Mr Greenwood as a result of the dismissal, such as how hard it would be for him to find another job for example. The EAT said that if an employer in these circumstances finds that there will be an injustice resulting from the dismissal, it should consider ways of alleviating that injustice before deciding to dismiss.

Therefore, the old saying of ‘keeping the customer happy’ can extend to dismissing your employees, but before you do this you must consider the extent of any injustice caused to the employee as a result, otherwise there is a risk that a potentially fair dismissal can be deemed unfair.




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