Re-Engagement

Thanks to Keira Gore of Outer Temple Chambers for preparing this case summary.

Where a claimant alleges misconduct against a respondent and its staff, do those allegations render it impractical for the respondent to re-engage the claimant in a different location to that where he previously worked? Not necessarily, said the EAT inOasis Community Learning v Wolff.

Mr Wolff was employed as a teacher by Oasis Community Learning, which is an institution responsible for schools in different parts of the country. In correspondence connected with his claim Mr Wolff made allegations of misconduct against Oasis as an institution and members of its HR Department, including that they had fabricated and suppressed evidence. The EAT held that in the particular circumstances of the case, the employment tribunal had not erred in making an order for re-engagement at a different school in a different part of the country, against Oasis' submissions that any re-engagement was impractical. The EAT said: "the fact that an employee has made serious allegations against colleagues or managers at one workplace will not have such impact on the relationship which he will have with colleagues and managers at a different workplace".