Wrongful dismissal successfully overturned
Mr Kuldeep Clair is an expert solicitor dealing in various areas of the law, including
commercial and contract law, employment law, and civil disputes and court claims.
His expertise and knowledge of the law and its practice are clearly backed up in his
overwhelming number of successful cases. One example of such a case is dealing
with an employment issue.
In this case, an ex-employee, the Claimant, was granted usage of a company bank
card for expenses relating to his employment. However, the company noticed that
the balance on the card and the timesheets of the ex-employee were not
correlating as they were displaying different sums. After carrying out an extensive
audit, the company identified discrepancies and unexplained transactions totalling
in thousands of pounds. Following this discovery, the ex-employee was duly
dismissed. However, the ex-employee brought a claim in the employment tribunal,
and then returned as an appellant and claimed for wrongful dismissal, along with
notice pay and holiday pay.
Mr Clair acted for the Respondent, the company, in this case and advocated
personally in the tribunal. Mr Clair successfully argued the position that the
Claimant had not been an employee of the Respondent, but rather a self-employed
individual working for the Respondent. As such, the Judge dismissed the claim of
unfair dismissal, and any other claims built upon it. The Judge considered all the
facts given by the representatives of the participating parties and concluded that in
any event, there had been no conduct by the Respondent which was likely to
breach any term of mutual trust and confidence. It was concluded that the
Appellant’s conduct was blameworthy by virtue of the Appellant’s repeated failure
to account for expenditure and report to the Respondent. Hence, the decision was
reached in favour of the Respondent.
Furthermore, the Judge issued a order for part of the costs in favour of the
Respondent, which is actually a very unusual order in an employment tribunal.
In this case, Mr Kuldeep Clair was able to build a concrete favourable position
before the tribunal. But, the Appellant was not satisfied with this result and
proceeded with the Employment Appeal Tribunal for a permission to appeal.
The Grounds of Appeal were on the questioning of the correct Judge’s appointment,
the Judges’ knowledge of employment law, the Judges’ biased decisions, and
Judges’ lack of reasoning. However, the Appeal Tribunal, upon detailed analysis of
the case, refused the appeal on all grounds as they were found to have no arguable
merit. This further proves, that Mr Kuldeep Clair was acting on even grounds and
was successful in this case in a fair manner.
If you would like to have the benefit of Mr Kuldeep Clair’s 25 years of experience as
Sterling Law’s most senior solicitor, whether in relation to a substantial
employment, civil or commercial matter.
