Termination, unfair

The vulnerability of the professional employee to unfair termination has finally been recognized, however, and is illustrated by abusive discharge cases, of which I shall now mention three. In a 1959 California case called Peterman vs. Teamster Local 296 (2), the court reinstated an employee who had been fired for failing to commit perjury when solicited to do so by the employer. In that case the court said ... 

Employees can at any time terminate the employment relationship under a CNE without statement of grounds. If employment is terminated by the employer, a 14-day notice period becomes effective after an employment duration of 1 month, and is extended to 1 month after 6 months employment. This contract thus dispenses with the essential protection against (unfair) dismissal provision that demands the statement of a real and serious cause (cause reelle et serieuse).94... 

Perrow (ibid) even characterized risk analysts as today s shamans. That may be unfair in a broad sense, however dramatic incidents like Heathrow Terminal 5 (which opened on 27 March 2008, and immediately ran into wildness and surprise , ending up with 23,000 bags misplaced and over 500 flights cancelled), and not at least, the ongoing financial crisis, illustrates the point. However meticulously prepared a system can fall immediately into total breakdown, and... 

Termination of employment is considered in more detail below. However, for a dismissal to be held to be fair, certain procedures must be followed and these are dealt with below. The right of appeal against unfair dismissal does not exist for employees whose continuous employment with that employer amounts to less than 1 year, to those who are beyond the retiring age normal in that employment (s. 64) and certain other classes (s. 140 et seq.). 

Initially, tribunals and indeed the Courts of Appeal had grave difficulty in deciding how this particular provision should be interpreted. On the one hand, some decisions indicated that it was purely and simply the conduct of the employer and if it was sufficiently grave for the employee to have a real complaint concerning it, then he was justified in terminating his own contract of employment and claiming thereafter that he had been unfairly dismissed. But the circumstances were not always so clearly defined nor the employer s conduct as grave as the complainant would indicate. 

Planning an interview is important, especially if it involves hiring or termination, because of the equal opportunity and unfair dismissal laws, which apply in many jurisdictions. Even if there is to be an on-the-spot step into my office interview for some reason, it can pay to spend a few minutes thinking beforehand about how to conduct... 

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