An important reminder of the rules on fair dismissal!

14th March 2023

An utterly mind-boggling case — Dumigan v Mount School — where the claimant, a veteran teacher was dismissed for declining to attend a staff meeting to care for her mother, 90, who had been recently diagnosed with cancer.

Ms Dumigan informed the owner of the school of her reasons for non-attendance only to receive a reply stating her “resignation was accepted”. Clearly, a case of unfair dimissal as the Tribunal found and perhaps unsurprisingly awarded Ms Dumigan £16,802.31 in compensation – a substantial sum on a teacher’s salary!

An important reminder that employees with two years continuous employment or more may only be dismissed if there is a fair reason to do so and that employers must follow a fair procedure when considering dismissing an employee.

If you have any queries regarding rules around dismissal, SMB are happy to help. Please feel free to contact me at joe.hennessy@smb.london for more information.

Teacher sacked for missing meeting after mum’s cancer diagnosis | UK News | Metro News