Adjournment
by Philip
An employer in this case appealed a Tribunal’s decision on the grounds of bias because the Chairman retired with a lay member to consider their decision and gales of laughter were heard from the retirement room. Bias cases are notoriously difficult to succeed with (because most Tribunals act fairly he says in case anyone from an Employment Tribunal is reading) and the appeal failed. It did remind me of a case a colleague did in Manchester where he was acting for an employer. In those pre-witness statement days you examined your witnesses in chief using questions. When he asked the witness what he did during the adjournment of a disciplinary meeting the witness said words to the effect that “Obviously we had made up our mind already so we put the kettle on, made a cup of tea and talked about the night before’s football.” Not surprisingly, the Tribunal in that case did not adjourn too long to make its decision.
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