Managing employees/workers
In Voss v Land Berlin C-300/06, the ECJ ruled that legislation under which overtime pay arrangements result in a part-timer being paid less overall than a comparable full-timer for the same number of hours potentially contravenes the principle of equal pay enshrined in art. 141 of the Treaty establishing the European Community.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that an employee who was sick during her ordinary maternity leave was not entitled to be paid contractual sick pay during that period.
In Regent Security Services Ltd v Power [2007] EWCA Civ 1188 CA, the Court of Appeal held that an employee transferred under the 1981 TUPE Regulations could choose to enforce new, more beneficial terms agreed with the transferee, even where the variation was connected with the transfer.
In Lyddon v Englefield Brickwork Ltd EAT/0301/07, the EAT held that, where an individual knew that his normal pay would include an element of holiday pay, subsequent identification in his payslip of the actual amount so allocated was sufficient to make it part of his contract, thus allowing the employer to offset those payments against the pay that was due to him when he actually took holiday.
In Jackson v Computershare Investor Services plc [2007] EWCA Civ 1065, the Court of Appeal ruled that the provision in the TUPE Regulations to the effect that a transferred contract of employment will have effect after the transfer as if originally made between the employee and the transferee could not be construed so as to give the employee a contractual benefit to which she had not been entitled under her original contract.
The High Court has held that an employee's resignation two days after he had been informed that he was being transferred was a valid objection to the transfer.
In Harris v NKL Automotive Ltd and Matrix Consultancy UK Ltd EAT 0134/07, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has upheld an employment tribunal's finding that a requirement to have tidy hair did not indirectly discriminate against a Rastafarian who wore his hair in dreadlocks.
This week's case of the week, provided by Addleshaw Goddard, covers the employment status of directors and shareholders.
Judith Harris, professional support lawyer at Addleshaw Goddard, outlines the latest legal rulings.
In Consistent Group Ltd v Kalwak and others [2007] IRLR 560 EAT the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that polish workers recruited in Poland by the agency in question and provided with both accommodation in the UK and transport to and from work were employees of the agency. Notwithstanding express written terms to the contrary, the reality of their relationship was one of employer and employees.
Employment law cases: HR and legal information and guidance relating to managing employees/workers.