Breach of contract
The service contract of a company chief executive imposed a contractual obligation on his employer to review and provide an annual upward adjustment in salary, holds the High Court in Clark v BET plc and another.
In Aspden v Webbs Poultry & Meat Group (Holdings) Ltd, the High Court implies a term into an employee's contract of employment providing that, save for summary dismissal, the employer would not terminate the contract while the employee was incapacitated for work.
There is no legal basis on which a court can, in enforcing a restrictive covenant by injunction, allow some kind of set-off against the period during which the employee has been on garden leave, holds the Court of Appeal in Armstrong and others v Credit Suisse Asset Management Ltd.
In Aparau v Iceland Frozen Foods plc the EAT overturns an industrial tribunal's decision that there was an express or implied term in an employee's contract of employment entitling the employer to move her, against her will, from one branch of its food stores to another.
In Quinn and others v Calder Industrial Materials Ltd the EAT upholds an industrial tribunal's ruling that the employer was not in breach of contract by failing to make enhanced redundancy payments to redundant employees.
In Alliance Paper Group Plc v Prestwich [1996] IRLR 25 HC, the High Court held that the employer was entitled to enforce a covenant restraining the employee from poaching staff who had been employed by the employer "in a senior capacity".
It is an implied term of every employee's contract of employment that their employer will reasonably and promptly afford them a reasonable opportunity to obtain redress of any grievance they may have, holds the EAT in WA Goold (Pearmak) Ltd v McConnell and another.
A lavish and expensive customer connection which has been developed by an employee at his employer's expense is part of the latter's goodwill, and is something which it is entitled to protect, holds the High Court in Euro Brokers Ltd v Rabey.
There is no general contractual obligation on an employer to act reasonably or fairly, holds the High Court in McClory & others v The Post Office. In relation to an express power to suspend an employee, however, there is an implied term that an employer will not exercise that right on unreasonable grounds.
In some circumstances, an employer is under an implied obligation to notify its employees of any rights which they have under their contracts of employment which are dependent upon them taking some sort of action, rules the House of Lords in Scally and others v Southern Health and Social Services Board and others.
Employment law cases: HR and legal information and guidance relating to breach of contract.