Appeal No.	 EAT/0590/00

EMPLOYMENT APPEAL TRIBUNAL
58 VICTORIA EMBANKMENT, LONDON EC4Y 0DS

	At the Tribunal
	On 12 October 2001

Before
HIS HONOUR JUDGE J R REID QC
MISS A MACKIE OBE
MR D NORMAN

WOOLWORTHS PLC	APPELLANT

MR M ROE	RESPONDENT

Transcript of Proceedings

JUDGMENT

Revised

	APPEARANCES

For the Appellant	NO APPEARANCE OR
REPRESENTATION
BY OR ON BEHALF OF
THE APPELLANT	
For the Respondent	NO APPEARANCE OR
REPRESENTATION
BY OR ON BEHALF OF
THE RESPONDENT	

HIS HONOUR JUDGE J R REID QC

1	This is an appeal from a decision of an Employment Tribunal sitting at Liverpool on 
15 February 2001.  

2	It has been agreed between the Appellant and the Respondent that the matter must go back for a re-hearing.  A draft order by consent has been put before us by which the appeal is allowed.  The decision is set aside and the matter is remitted for re-hearing before a differently constituted Employment Tribunal.  

3	We agree that that is an appropriate order to make and so make it.  In making it, we should make it abundantly clear, that this represents no criticism whatsoever of the Tribunal which produced a carefully reasoned and lengthy decision.  The difficulty that the Tribunal had was the, then existing, state of the law.  The law has since been clarified by the Court of Appeal.  It has emerged as a result of the decision of the Court of Appeal that the law, as understood by the Tribunal, and as reflected in decisions of the Employment Appeal Tribunal, was not as the Tribunal believed it to be.  In those circumstances, they, entirely understandably, proceeded on what has subsequently been found by the Court of Appeal to be an inaccurate basis of law.

4	In the circumstances, as I have said, by consent this appeal must be allowed and the matter remitted for a re-hearing before a differently constituted Tribunal.