The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has ruled that a teacher could not be dismissed for refusing to work after a school refused to pay her wages for refusing to work.
The teacher had been employed for five years by a school in the London Borough of Hackney. The school was due to close and the teacher had been informed that she would be made redundant. The school was unable to pay her the redundancy money and the teacher refused to work.
The teacher was dismissed by the school, and the EAT upheld the decision of the Employment Tribunal (ET). The EAT found that the school was under no obligation to pay the teacher the redundancy money and that it was not a redundancy payment for the teacher to refuse to work.
The EAT found that the school could not be liable to pay the teacher the redundancy money because it had no legal obligation to pay her. The school had argued that it was obliged to pay the teacher the money because it had a statutory obligation to pay the teacher her redundancy money. The EAT found that the school had not fulfilled its statutory duty.
The EAT found that the school could not be liable to pay the teacher the money because it had no legal obligation to pay her. It had argued that it was obliged to pay the teacher the money because it had a statutory obligation to pay the teacher her redundancy money.