Russell HR Consulting

 

‘Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the Earth’ (Matthew 5:5)… or not as the case may be for one unlucky individual. Reverend Allan MacDonald of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland recently lost his case at the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT).

 

Reverend MacDonald had been dismissed previously from his post as Minister of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland following the rather controversial publication of a religious text. He took up a claim of unfair dismissal at his local employment tribunal in Inverness, hoping that he would receive some compensation for his loss of employment, only to be rejected as he was found to be an “office holder” and not an employee. Rev. MacDonald had no written contract of employment and could not, therefore, be considered an employee under the Employment Rights Act 1996.

 

In giving its reasons for their decision, the tribunal drew attention to the fact that duties as a minister were to his flock as apposed to the church itself and said “…it could not impose a legal relationship on members of a church which would be contrary to their religious beliefs”.

 

Rev. MacDonald later appealed unsuccessfully. The EAT agreed that the original tribunal was not sufficiently detailed, but found that the basis of judgement as a whole was sufficiently thorough to be accepted.

 

As an employer, you may find yourself in front of an employment tribunal with an ex-employee claiming unfair dismissal. The number of claims has increased dramatically over the past few years, many of which could have been avoided had the situation been managed and controlled effectively before it had escalated. There are a number of steps you can take to help protect both you and your employees:

 

• You must provide employees with a written contract of the main particulars of their employment that has been signed by both parties, within two months of the commencement of their employment. Employees who are not provided with a written contract of employment, or who are not notified of any changes to this contract, or who contest the document’s accuracy, may take up a claim at their local employment tribunal.
• Make sure that you communicate precise, measureable standards to your employees.
• Where an employee fails to meet the standards, follow your disciplinary procedures sooner rather than later.
• Prevention is far, far better, quicker and cheaper than cure, so make sure you provide some employment law training.

 

If you would like more information on dealing with disciplinary procedures within the workplace, or to purchase our book ‘101 Tips For Employers’, contact us on 0845 644 8955 or visit our website at http://www.russellhrconsulting.co.uk/.

 

 

By Darry Khajehpour

This entry was posted on Friday, March 12th, 2010 at 5:38 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.