Breach of contract
Our resident experts at Pinsents bring you a comprehensive update on all the latest decisions that could affect your organisation, and advice on what to do about them.
In Bank of Credit and Commerce International SA (in liquidation) v Ali and others (No.3), the Court of Appeal holds that, where a claimant alleges that stigma resulting from his or her previous employment affected his or her employment prospects, it was for him or her to prove that the stigma had a real or substantial effect on his or her obtaining employment.
In Albion Automotive Ltd v Walker and others, the Court of Appeal upholds an employment tribunal's decision that an employer who made enhanced redundancy payments according to an agreed policy for a number of years created a custom and practice from which the tribunal could infer that the employer and/or its successors intended to be contractually bound to make those payments.
This week's case roundup from Eversheds, covering company car policy and sex discrimination.
In Parkins v Sodexho Ltd, the EAT holds that a protected disclosure for the purposes of s.43B Employment Rights Act 1996 can relate to a breach of the employee's own contract of employment.
The EAT holds in Hilton v Shiner Ltd that an employment tribunal had erred in holding, without giving reasons, that there was no fundamental change in an employee's contract in circumstances where the employee had been demoted from a position which included serving customers and the handling of money to one in which he was not allowed to do either.
In Chequepoint (UK) Ltd v Radwan, the Court of Appeal upholds an employment tribunal's award of damages to a dismissed employee in respect of unpaid bonuses.
An employee who was summarily and wrongfully dismissed 12 days before his 55th birthday, albeit with 12 weeks' pay in lieu of notice, was in principle entitled to claim damages made up of the amount that he would have been paid but for the employer's repudiatory breach of his contract of employment, holds the Court of Appeal in Silvey v Pendragon plc.
There is no common law contractual remedy for financial or other loss allegedly flowing from the manner or circumstances of an employee's dismissal, holds the House of Lords in Johnson v Unisys Ltd.
The suspension of a care worker in a children's home by her local authority employer, pending the outcome of an investigation into an allegation of child sexual abuse, amounted to a breach of the implied term of trust and confidence in her contract of employment, holds the Court of Appeal in Gogay v Hertfordshire County Council.
Employment law cases: HR and legal information and guidance relating to breach of contract.