No special treatment for charities
by Jenny
A recent case at the Employment Appeal Tribunal concerned a charity in serious financial difficulties. An Employment Tribunal had found against the charity after one of its employees brought a claim for, amongst other things, unfair dismissal.
A new Chief Executive had been brought in to try and turn the charity around. He had found that there were no written employment contracts and that the employee in question was employed on very favourable terms and conditions, which had come about through a combination of custom and practice and policy documents. The employer wanted to bring in new terms and conditions for all employees.
The employer wrote to the employee explaining that she would be dismissed if she did not accept the new terms and conditions and even said: “Please be aware that these changes are absolutely vital for survival of the charity”
For obvious reasons the employee didn’t want to accept the new terms. She raised two grievances about the changes which were ignored. She met with the Chief Executive at the time the changes were to come in. Needless to say she declined to accept the new terms and conditions and was summarily dismissed. The correct procedure wasn’t followed and the ET found that the dismissal was automatically unfair.
The employer appealed citing, as one of the reasons for appeal, that the result was harsh on a charity in a precarious financial position and that it would affect the charity’s ability to continue in its role. The EAT was sympathetic with the charity’s view but could not find that the ET had failed to take into account all the facts before making their decision. Accordingly there was no reason for it to be reviewed on appeal unless it is demonstrated to have been perverse. The appeal was dismissed.
The point being - it doesn’t matter if you’re a seriously ailing charity and are bringing in measures to try and stop it going under - you still have to follow the procedures.
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“A new Chief Executive had been brought in to try and turn the charity around. He had found that there were no employment contracts and that the employee in question was employed on very favourable terms and conditions”
Clearly there were contracts - just not in writing.
Richard said at August 12th, 2008 at 7:19 pm