Latest Tribunal News

May 13, 2009

In the case of Daleside Nursing Home Limited v Mathew the Employment Appeals Tribunal (EAT) have overturned a Tribunal Judgement that a costs order was not appropriate in a case where the allegation made by the employee was clearly a lie.

In the case the EAT had to consider whether or not the employee had acted unreasonably in the circumstance to allow a costs order to be made. This was considered by the original Tribunal and was found not to be the case.
The original Tribunal had rejected the employee’s claim of direct Race Discrimination, Unlawful Deduction of wages and Unfair Constructive Dismissal. The Direct discrimination allegation was based on the manager of the home calling the employee a ‘Black Bitch’ when frustrated with her attitude.

The Tribunal came to the conclusion that had this been the case the employee would not have waited until disciplinary action was on horizon 3 weeks later before bring the issue to the attention of the management. It was therefore stated that he manager did not make this comment and the claim failed.
 

The Company Represetative put forward an application for costs under rule 40(2) of the Tribunal Rules, which allows a tribunal or judge to award costs where the claimant has acted unreasonably, among other things. The tribunal did not consider that M and her representative had acted unreasonably - they 'genuinely felt they had a claim but were merely wrong and they lost'.
 

This case then went to the EAT for them to reconsider the decision that the original Tribunal had reached. The EAT held that the Tribunal had found that the allegation central to the claim was a lie, and that the Tribunal were wrong to conclude that this did not constituted unreasonableness. In this case the lie was ‘so much at the heart of the case’ that the original Tribunal had been wrong in rejecting the Company’s application for costs.
The case was sent back to the original Tribunal for them to determine the level of the costs to be awarded.

This case shows that Tribunals now will take into consideration the actions of both employer and employee in a clear cases of unreasonableness costs orders should be made.