Private life and dismissal: Pay v UK - Application No 32792/05, [2009] IRLR 139 (ECtHR)

After seven years of litigation, including four trips to the English Court of Appeal, an admissibility decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has finally ended Mr Pay's hopes of a successful claim for unfair dismissal. The legal significance of these proceedings concerns the interpretation of Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), the right to respect for private life, in the context of an employment dispute. We shall argue that the decision of the ECtHR casts considerable doubt on the correctness of the interpretation that has been placed on the right to privacy by the Court of Appeal in the context of claims for unfair dismissal. The correct interpretation of the provision leads, on our view, to a standard of protection in dismissal higher than the current test of reasonableness that courts and tribunals employ.