Trinity Employment & Discrimination Law barrister, James McHugh successfully acted for the Appellant in the Employment Appeal Tribunal in an appeal concerning whether an Employment Tribunal (ET) at first instance had made an error in law in relation to their identification of the reason for dismissal and whether the dismissal was a fair one.
In Granger v. Scottish Fire & Rescue Service [2025] EAT 90 the Appellant sought to overturn a decision from the Glasgow Employment Tribunal that he had been fairly dismissed following being assessed as qualifying for an Ill Health Pension in circumstances when he did not consent to ill health retirement.
The ET concluded that the dismissal had been fair, and was for ‘some other substantial reason’, specifically the assessment that the Claimant qualified for ill health retirement at the Higher tier. The ET made a number of findings in relation to the process followed by the Respondent that it concluded would have been unsatisfactory ‘had this been a Capability Process’ but were nevertheless not unfair on the basis that dismissal was ‘for some other substantial reason'.
Following a hearing on 10th June 2025, Lady Haldane sitting in the Employment Appeal Tribunal in Edinburgh found that the Tribunal had fallen into error by categorising the reason for dismissal as ‘some other substantial’ reason rather than for the reason of ‘capability’.
Lady Haldane went on to find that ET had also fallen into error in conflating process (medical assessment within a Capability Process) with outcome (the Claimant qualifying for ill health retirement at the higher tier).
James acted solely for the Appellant and was instructed by DLG Legal Services. The Respondent was represented at the appeal by Anna Beale KC.