Third-party pressure to dismiss

Case 7: The facts

David Greenwood was employed by a shop-fitting company which had contracts with various stores. He worked at a Morrison’s store, but was dismissed after Morrison’s complained about the quality of his work and barred him from the store. A tribunal said his dismissal was fair, as his employer had had “very little choice– and had found that there was not enough spare work elsewhere.

The ruling

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) acknowledged that Greenwood’s employer had had a potentially fair reason to dismiss but added that, in cases of dismissal as a result of third-party pressure, a tribunal has a duty to take into account the injustice to the employee. The tribunal in this case had not done so – and if it had, the EAT said, it might have found that the injustice suffered by Greenwood was so severe that his employer should have reorganised its existing work to find an alternative to dismissal.

The case was sent to a different tribunal to be re-heard.

Greenwood v Whiteghyll Plastics Ltd UKEAT/0219/07