Employer must prove reason for dismissal, says Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal has said that employment tribunals do not have to back a fired employee's story simply because the employer fails to prove its opposing case. A tribunal can come to its own conclusion, the Court said.

In a case against pharmaceutical company Roche an ex-employee who was unfairly dismissed claimed that the reason for her dismissal was that she was a whistleblower. If the Employment Tribunal (ET) had accepted that submission her damages would have been uncapped.

Roche failed to prove that it had a fair reason for the dismissal of Dr Ryta Kuzel, and her lawyers said that in that situation the ET must adopt the reason for the dismissal put forward by the ex-employee, which was in this case that she was fired for whistleblowing.

Full story at Out-Law