School Mentor's Appointment As Major - Dismissal was "SOSR"
Keeping with the political theme - one of the potentially fair grounds for dismissal is ‘some other substantial reason of a kind as to justify the dismissal’ (SOSR). In a recent case the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that a politician, Mr Anderson, who had been employed by Sefton Borough Council at Chesterfield High School but had ceased carrying out his duties there since he was elected as Leader of Liverpool City Council, had been fairly dismissed for SOSR when he was then elected Mayor.
Prior to Mr Anderson’s election, it have been agreed that he should continue as an employee on the basis that he would be paid the maximum allowed as paid leave to enable him to hold public office by section 10 Local Government and Housing Act 1989. His post was held open and the council also continued to pay pension contributions. The arrangement continued until the school became an Academy and was independent of the local authority control. The school governors were concerned that when Mr Anderson was elected mayor it had continued paying him an annual sum but the pupils received no benefit. They, therefore, terminated the agreement. The EAT upheld the ET’s finding that Mr Anderson had been fairly dismissed for SOSR. The EAT was robust in its decision. It was clearly wrong to expect a publicly funded school to provide an elected official with pay when it received no benefit. This was an unjustifiable misuse of public funds.
(Anderson v Chesterfield High School UKEAT/0206/14 )
Posted on 06/02/2015 by Ortolan
