Paternity leave dismissal

Case 4: The facts

Mr Atkins took a week’s paternity leave, but told his employer that he would be contactable by telephone. While he was off, his manager phoned him but was told by Atkins’ partner that he was asleep. Another member of staff said Atkins might want to know sooner rather than later about the matter as it might affect his commission; she phoned Atkins’ partner again and put some pressure on her to go and wake him up.

Atkins sent his manager an email complaining about the call; they had a heated telephone conversation which ended with the manager telling Atkins that he was sacked. Atkins claimed that he had been unfairly dismissed for a reason connected with his paternity leave.

The ruling

Dismissing employees because they are on paternity leave (or any other parental leave) is automatically unfair. But it is not unfair to dismiss them for other reasons that may arise, such as gross misconduct. There was no dispute that Atkins was on paternity leave when he was dismissed; the issue was whether the leave was the reason for his dismissal.

A tribunal had found that Atkins’ manager had dismissed him out of frustration and annoyance at his reaction to an attempt to do him a good turn on commission, and because he had agreed to be contacted. Therefore his dismissal was not automatically unfair.