Dismissal — the key developments

• When deciding whether a dismissal is fair or unfair, only the state of mind or knowledge of the individual appointed by the employer to make the dismissal decision is relevant. The fact that there is information elsewhere in the organisation that might have altered the outcome is irrelevant, unless a fair investigation would have uncovered that information (case 1).

• In an unfair dismissal claim, the three-month deadline for bringing a claim starts to run as soon as the employee knows, or has had a reasonable opportunity to find out, that the employment has ended. The fact that someone has been dismissed can be by communicated by the conduct of the employer as well as directly by written or verbal means (case 2).