Contracts of employment: Collectively agreed terms may have been incorporated by custom and practice

An employment tribunal erred in ruling that employees who protested to their employer, by way of petition, against new terms and conditions of employment collectively agreed between the employer and the recognised trade union had not accepted those terms, holds the EAT in London General Transport Services Ltd v Henry and others [2001] IRLR 132. They were arguably incorporated into individual contracts of employment by virtue of a certain, reasonable and notorious custom and practice. And, given that the employees worked in accordance with the new terms, which included reduced rates of pay, for nearly two years after lodging their petition but before complaining to a tribunal of unlawful deductions from wages, the tribunal was wrong to conclude that the petition was sufficient in itself to preclude acceptance.