Contracts of employment
In this case, the retailer Boots took a business decision to reduce long-serving workers' double time for Sunday and bank holiday working to time-and-a-half, but the employment tribunal found this to be an unlawful variation of the workers' terms and conditions of employment.
In Edwards v Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Botham v Ministry of Defence [2012] IRLR 129 SC, the Supreme Court held that the principle in Johnson v Unisys Ltd that the implied term of trust and confidence does not allow recovery of damages for loss arising from the manner of dismissal applies equally to alleged breaches of express contractual terms.
The Court of Appeal has held that an employee who worked in the UK knowing that she did not have permission to do so was unable to claim discrimination against her unlawful employers, given that her illegal actions formed a material part of her discrimination claims.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has affirmed the employment tribunal's decision that an employee who was unfairly dismissed because the employer believed his prison sentence frustrated his contract of employment was guilty of contributory conduct.
In this test case, the employment tribunal found that an NHS trust had unlawfully amended its pay progression policy to provide that staff would be denied a pay rise if their sickness absence reached a certain level.
The employer in this case fell into the trap of assuming that, as long as it waited for a while (one year in this case) after a TUPE transfer, it could detrimentally alter the contractual benefits of employees who had transferred, in a bid to harmonise its workforce's terms and conditions.
David Malamatenios and Georgina Kyriacou are partners, and Krishna Santra, Colin Makin and Sandra Martins are associates at Colman Coyle Solicitors. They round up the latest rulings.
The European Court of Justice has suggested that it may be possible for employers to justify engaging an individual for more than four years on a succession of fixed-term contracts as he or she moves around to cover work for different absent employees.
The High Court has listed some of the factors that a court may take into account when determining whether or not a provision, for example a provision in a disciplinary procedure, is apt for incorporation into an employee's contract of employment.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has confirmed that an agreed variation of an employment contract following a TUPE transfer is effective where the transfer is not the sole or principal reason for the variation.
Employment law cases: HR and legal information and guidance relating to contracts of employment.