Weekly Issue 446

Increase in fines for health and safety breaches

Some organisations and individuals convicted of corporate manslaughter, health and safety and food safety and hygiene offences can expect to face higher penalties from the beginning of next year, following the publication of new sentencing guidelines.

A case of bad faith

In cases of misconduct resulting in dismissal, tribunals have to assess the employer’s conduct and decision-making against a “range of reasonable responses”. In Secretary of State for Justice and Lown, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) held that tribunals must put an allegation of “bad faith” directly to the employer so that they have the opportunity to respond to it.

Test of public interest

Following an amendment in 2013 to the 1998 Public Interest Disclosure Act, a worker making a qualifying disclosure now has to have a reasonable belief that it is “in the public interest”. In Underwood v Wincanton plc, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) held that the “public” could be constituted by a subset of the public, even if that subset was made up solely of people employed by the same employer on the same terms.