Employment tribunals are used to working with concepts of reasonableness and equity, so it might have been expected that when the Human Rights Act (HRA) came into force two years ago it would have little impact on their work. However, exploring just a few areas of employment law, upon which the HRA has had and could have an impact, shows that view was shortsighted.
In unfair dismissal cases, employment
tribunals need to interpret the phrase ‘in accordance with equity and the substantial merits of the case’ in section 98 of the Employment Rights Act (ERA) 1996 with the HRA in mind. The question ‘what are the substantial merits
of the case?’ will have to take into account issues such as the right to respect for private and family life in Article 8, as well as the right
to respect for freedom, thought and conscience in Article 9.
