Appellate decisions in 2025 demonstrated judicial focus on the way tribunals assess justification, proportionality and process where employers are required to balance competing statutory protections or legitimate operational demands. That emphasis shows no sign of receding and is likely to feature again in 2026, among other significant appellate issues. Below, we highlight five cases to watch and explain why they matter for employers.

Vicarious liability for whistleblowing detriment in the form of dismissal

The Court of Appeal's judgment in Wicked Vision v Rice was on our watch list for 2025 and it remains firmly on the radar as it heads to the Supreme Court in 2026.

The Court of Appeal confirmed that, for now, employees may continue to bring whistleblowing detriment claims where the alleged detriment is their dismissal, even though this outcome sits uneasily with the statutory scheme. The court acknowledged that, on a straightforward reading of the legislation, dismissal-based detriment claims should not be available. However, it considered itself bound by the earlier decision in Timis v Osipov, in which a differently constituted Court of Appeal held that employees were able to bring a dismissal-based detriment claim.

The practical effect is that employees may pursue overlapping claims against the employer arising from the same dismissal, namely:

• a claim for detriment based on vicarious liability; and
• a claim for automatically unfair dismissal.

This exposes employers to...

Read Full Story: https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMilAFBVV95cUxOMlZPS2ZwMkZqcWw2YW9DcDh6...