Change to tribunal panel

Case 5: The facts

Todd McKenzie won claims of unfair and wrongful dismissal and unlawful deduction of wages. Before the remedies hearing, a lay member of the tribunal panel fell ill and the regional chair arranged for a substitute to take his place at the hearing.

The tribunal awarded McKenzie the maximum compensation and the employer appealed, arguing that the chair should have told the parties before replacing the ill member and asked whether they wanted to proceed or start the hearing afresh.

The ruling

The EAT said it could see why it would be undesirable to bring a new member in when there were still issues of liability to be decided and the member had not heard the evidence – but in this case the tribunal had already decided that the dismissal was unfair, and the only thing left was “doing the maths”. Furthermore, the chair had given the parties an opportunity to object at the start of the remedies hearing, and neither had.

The EAT rejected the employer’s appeal and awarded costs against it for its “unreasonable conduct” in pursuing the appeal when it had the opportunity to settle the claim.

Monfort International plc v McKenzie UKEAT/0155/06