Overhaul of Employment Tribunal system demanded after appeal upheld

Friday 17 January 2014

A senior business leader has called Jersey’s Employment Tribunal ‘incompetent’ after the Royal Court found that it had ‘erred in law’.

Voisins Department Store Ltd Chairman Gerald Voisin called for the Island’s tribunal system to be overhauled after the tribunal wrongly ruled that Voisins had unfairly dismissed an employee for theft, and incorrectly made an award for wrongful dismissal.

Following an appeal against the ruling, the Royal Court found that the tribunal had not "applied the legal test correctly" and that if it had "it must have reached the opposite conclusion".

Mr Voisin said: "The Royal Court judgement is a welcome vindication of Voisins’ employment practices but it is of great concern to me that the employment tribunal can make such terrible decisions.

"The Employment Law is an important piece of legislation which the tribunal is supposed to uphold. However, it is actually bringing it into disrepute through its erroneous decisions. Clearly, the tribunal system needs a complete overhaul", he added.

In its Judgement, the Royal Court said that the tribunal’s panel members had "substituted their own standards of what was an adequate investigation for the standards that could be objectively expected of a reasonable employer in the circumstances prevailing at the time of the dismissal…which is not the correct approach".

As a result, the tribunal ruled against Voisins whereas the Royal Court Judgement states: "The only conclusion that a reasonable Tribunal could arrive at…is that the investigation carried out by Voisins was reasonable in all circumstances of the case."

The Judgement found that the tribunal had misunderstood the required scope of the employer’s investigation, saying: "The investigation and report dealt with matters thoroughly. There was absolutely no need for any wider investigation."

The Royal Court also found that despite failing to consider whether the dismissal was wrong (ie contrary to the employee’s employment contract), the tribunal had awarded the employee over £5,000 compensation for wrongful dismissal.

The Judgement says that this is an error which the tribunal appears to have made in earlier cases, namely Osbourne v Spellbound Holdings (16 September 2009), Baal v Luxicabs (13 September 2010) and Knox v Alex McAulay Ltd (16 July 2013).

 The Royal Court Judgement waived this award, saying: "The Tribunal in this case has made no findings of fact in relation to [the employee’s] claim for wrongful dismissal relying impermissibly on the finding of unfair dismissal."

Mr Voisin added: "It would appear that in all of these cases, the Tribunal has erred in law when making its decisions. With this background, it is not surprising that the business community is experiencing a crisis of confidence in the Tribunal’s competency and this needs to be addressed urgently if businesses are going to feel confident recruiting staff."