An Employment Tribunal has ordered that an unfairly dismissed employee be reinstated on restricted duties to the job from which she was dismissed 9 years previously.

A company who sent written concerns about their performance to an employee who was off sick with work-related stress was found to have constructively dismissed that employee.

IKEA in Dublin has been ordered to pay €30,000 (£23,000) for unfairly dismissing a member of staff who had drunk a milkshake without paying for it.

The dismissal of an employee for sharing confidential information was unfair in circumstances where the business’ information-sharing culture was at odds with its formal confidentiality policy.

An employee’s dismissal will not be unfair by reason of a colleague being given disparate treatment if the two employees’ circumstances are not truly parallel.

An employer can fairly dismiss an employee for making derogatory comments on a personal Facebook account.

An employer’s decision to dismiss an employee summarily on grounds of gross misconduct was not a reasonable response to an employee’s failure to adhere to a new health and safety procedure. It was therefore outside of the ‘range of reasonable responses’ open to the employer, and it constituted an unfair dismissal.

A fairly conducted appeal is capable of remedying even serious procedural defects in the first part of a disciplinary process.

In the absence of evidence suggesting that an employee is unable to do his job, it was unreasonable for an employer to dismiss an employee for coming to work whilst smelling of alcohol.

Two recent cases relate to employers’ investigations into misconduct by their employees.