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20 October 2005

In the case of Perkin v St Georges Healthcare NHS Trust, the Court of Appeal decided that St Georges Healthcare NHS Trust were entitled to dismiss Mr Perkins due to his ‘difficult’ personality. The Court of Appeal’s decision enables employers to dismiss employees, even when they are technically good at their jobs and there are no criticisms of their integrity, on the grounds of ‘some other substantial reason’ because they have a troublesome personality.

The decision also supports the fact that it is open to the Tribunal to make a finding that the employee contributed to their own dismissal by 100%. Mr Perkins was found to have contributed to his dismissal by 100% because of the aggressive way in which he defended himself, which he did by making allegations of fraud against the Chief Executive of the NHS Trust. The Court of Appeal found that the manner in which he had behaved meant that the Trust were correct to have dismissed him on the grounds he would not be able to continue working with senior executives of the Trust.

Steen & Co Employment Solicitors will be monitoring the developments in this area of law and will provide information as and when more details are known. For more information please contact us via any of the methods set out on our contact us page.